CAMBRIDGE, MA., Aug 19 (IPS) – Closing arguments are in place in a US trade complaint against Mexico’s restrictions on genetically modified (GM) corn, and a three-judge tribunal will rule on the matter in November. The validity of the trade agreement itself hangs in the balance.
During the year-long process, Mexico dismissed the US claims, indicating that its security measures are allowed under the terms of the trade agreement, that its restrictions have little effect on US exports, and that it has a lot of scientific evidence to justify its security policies.
Will the panel allow the US to use the trade agreement to impose a policy that does not affect trade?
The US government requested this formal dispute resolution process last year under the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) over the Mexican presidential order of February 2023 that limited the use of GM corn in tortillas and ended the use of the herbicide glyphosate, which is used in -80% of US corn. Mexico cited evidence of both GM corn and glyphosate in tortillas and other common corn preparations and documented the risks of such exposure, especially for Mexicans who consume more than ten times the amount of corn consumed per capita in the United States.
Where is the trade limit?
The US claim has been important from the beginning. In its complaint it called the Mexican president’s declaration a “Tortilla Corn Ban” and a “Replacement Order” to end imports of yellow GM corn for animal feed. Mexico, in its written documents in this case, has repeatedly contested these terms.
By calling it the “tortilla corn ban” the US means that Mexico has banned the export of US white corn, the type commonly used in tortillas. They didn’t. They only prohibit the use of GM corn in tortillas and other foods made from lightly processed (ground) white corn. The ban is on consumption, not importation. Exports of white corn, including GM white corn, still flow from the US to Mexico. They cannot be used in the tortilla/corn flour food chain.
Because most US corn exports are yellow varieties for animal feed and industrial use, the restriction does not affect US corn producers at all. Where is the trade limit?
Much of the US case hinges on its misleading interpretation of the “Substitution Instruction” as a trade restriction. It is nothing like that.
The US says the 2023 declaration mandates the eventual phasing out of all purchases of GM corn, threatening Mexico’s $5 billion-a-year market for US yellow corn – 97% of which is exported from the US – and many varieties of GMs are widely used as animal feed. Although Mexico has no current restrictions on US exports, and none is planned, the US says Mexico’s mandate threatens the future benefits it expects to receive from the trade agreement.
Trade lawyer Ernesto Hernández López took the deception of the US, pointing out that there is no mandate (order) to stop using GM corn, just to grow other non-GM food sources and use them as they are available. The first rule uses the term “gradual change” (substitution paulatina) and makes it clear that it is based on available data.
As Hernández López points out, the trade panel should not accept the US argument based too much on the supposed future reduction of Mexican imports of GM feed corn. The US case has been weakened by data showing that US corn exports to Mexico have increased sharply since the 2023 rule, the result of a weak harvest due to drought.
Consider the facts
A USMCA court must consider the following facts:
The Mexican government has also highlighted how compromised and full of conflicts of interest the US regulatory process regarding GM corn is, a charge supported by the US Center for Food Safety. This means that, as a Reuters article put it in March, “Mexico is waiting for evidence from the US that GM corn is safe for its people.”
After hundreds of pleadings and two days of hearings, Mexico is still waiting for that evidence. We hope that the court will weigh the facts, dismiss the US claim, and not allow the US to abuse the trade agreement to impose a policy it does not like.
Timothy A. Wise is a Senior Research Fellow at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute and the author of Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers and the Battle for the Future of Food.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
