Mexico proposes a study to the US to find out if transgenic corn is harmful

Emir Olivares and Georgina Saldierna

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday December 10, 2022, p. 6

Mexico proposed to the United States that the health authorities of the two countries carry out a study on the content of American yellow corn, which may be transgenic, to find out if it is harmful to human health, reported President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Yesterday morning, the president stated that the idea is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) carry out an investigation into the damage that this product could cause. Let it be seen if that corn affects health and both the United States and Mexico accept the opinion.

The issue arose due to the new commercial tension between the two nations after the threat of the White House to go to the North American treaty (T-MEC) if it does not achieve a favorable solution to the Mexican ban on the use of transgenic corn, which in principle López Obrador decreed as of January 2024, but because of this dispute, Mexico offered to postpone it until 2025.

Referring to this controversy, the head of the Mexican Executive said that carrying out said analysis will allow certainty and that is good for Mexican and United States consumers.

He emphasized that the ingestion of transgenic corn among people in the country will not be allowed, a position that was already made clear to the Secretary of Agriculture of the neighboring country, Tom Vilsack, during a meeting they had on November 28.

That is an already well-defined position on our part: yes to import yellow corn, but for fodder, not for human consumption. It is about 15 million tons of that product.

The man from Tabasco trusted that this controversy would be resolved and revealed that in his meeting with Vilsack he told him: “‘Look, the relationship between us is so good and we want it to be so good that even to fight we are going to agree.’ In other words, he does not mean that there will not be differences, but we are going to respect each other ”.

In a few days, he announced, there will be a meeting between Mexican and US officials to continue with these negotiations and resolve whether to carry out the analysis proposed by his administration.

It is under review. There is going to be a meeting, I think on the 16th (December) for this purpose in the United States. They accepted in (the secretariats of) Commerce and Economy, they need to accept Agriculture, in the United States. But this is the best, because we are going to have an opinion, we are going to have certainty, and this is good for Mexican and American consumers..

López Obrador announced that some producers in the United States and in sectors of the Joe Biden government are willing to sow Mexican native seed.

These are issues that we have. Of course, there are mechanisms in the treaty to resolve all these issues. Doesn’t affect the relationship at allhe asserted.

He also commented that before the end of this year, the delivery of free fertilizer to 2 million small producers in the country will begin. This as a measure to promote self-consumption and alleviate inflation; and recognized the support of self-service chains to keep the price of the basket of 24 basic products below one thousand 39 pesos.