Starting this Tuesday, Mexico will impose a 50% tariff on white corn exports (only for human consumption and not genetically modified).
The announcement was published by the Ministry of Economy this Monday in the evening edition of the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) and the tariff will be in force until June 30, 2023.
Until this Monday, imports of white corn originating from countries with which Mexico does not apply tariff advantages derived from trade agreements paid a 20 percent tariff.
In the last decade, annual imports of white corn from the United States fluctuated between 103,000 and 1,108,000 tons, according to data from the US Department of Commerce.
As part of its considerations, the Ministry of Economy explained that the National Development Plan 2019-2024, published on July 12, 2019 in the DOF, in its General Axis III. Economy, “Promoting economic reactivation, the internal market and employment”, foresees that one of the central tasks of the current administration is to establish a salary recovery policy, which cannot be separated from purchasing power, since in a scenario of high inflation, wage recovery is limited by price increases.
He also argued that according to the 2021 Agri-Food Panorama, white corn is a basic food product in Mexico as it is an important source of caloric energy in the Mexican diet and is the grain with the highest production with 89% participation. of the national production of grains and with an annual per capita consumption of 332 kg;
The Ministry of Economy maintained that the supply and production of white corn in our country are important factors in determining its price and, therefore, also of the various consumer products made from it, mainly tortillas, to guarantee a sufficient supply, it is necessary to maintain national production in our country and ensure market conditions that allow its price to stabilize.
