Mexico’s Agriculture Minister Say Mexico Will Not Limit GMO Corn Imports From US

Mexican Agriculture Minister Victor Villalobos, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen circuit the Seed Science Center successful Ames, Iowa, connected Oct. 20, 2021. (Tom Polansek/Reuters)

ANKENY, Iowa—Mexico’s agriculture curate said the state would not bounds imports of genetically modified (GMO) maize from the United States during a gathering with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack successful Iowa connected Wednesday.

Mexico published an enforcement bid precocious past twelvemonth that sought to prohibition successful 3 years the usage of GMO maize for quality consumption, but did not specify what products would beryllium included, generating disorder successful the agriculture industry. The authorities pledged to substitute imports with section accumulation by 2024.

Mexico is the No. 2 purchaser of U.S. maize aft China. Mexican Agriculture Minister Victor Villalobos said Mexico would not let the cultivation of GMO maize but would let imports from the United States.

“We volition proceed requiring and demanding yellowish maize from the United States,” helium told reporters. He said Mexico depended connected yellowish maize “for agro industries.”

Vilsack said seeds are the adjacent happening the Department of Agriculture volition look astatine nether a Biden medication bid connected competition.

The medication plans to instrumentality a look astatine the effect manufacture and “why it’s structured the mode it’s structured,” Vilsack said. “You wonderment whether these agelong patents marque sense.”

Companies, including Bayer AG and Corteva Inc., make genetically modified seeds and herbicides that different companies tin lone nutrient erstwhile a patent expires. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto successful 2016, has agelong been ascendant successful the U.S. market.

Bayer and Corteva did not instantly respond to requests for comment.

By Tom Polansek