US Facing Mexicos Ban on GM-Corn Imports
February 25, 2021
Timothy A. Wise covers the trade-tension potential of the López Obrador
governments policy and its implications for a country where corn is such a
major dietary staple.
Shelling corn in Oaxaca, Mexico, 2007. (Lon&Queta, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
By Timothy A. Wise
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Inter Press Service
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador quietly rocked the
agribusiness world with his New Years Eve decree to phase out use of the
herbicide glyphosate and the cultivation of genetically modified corn.
His administration sent an even stronger aftershock two weeks later,
clarifying that the government would also phase out GM corn imports in three
years and the ban would include not just corn for human consumption but
yellow corn destined primarily for livestock. Under NAFTA, the United States
has seen a 400 percent increase in corn exports to Mexico, the vast majority
genetically modified yellow dent corn.
The bold policy moves fulfill a campaign promise by Mexicos populist
president, whose agricultural policies have begun to favor Mexican
producers, particularly small-scale farmers, and protect consumers alarmed
by the rise of obesity and chronic diseases associated with high-fat,
high-sugar processed foods.
In banning glyphosate, the decree cites the precautionary principle and the
growing body of scientific research showing the dangers of the chemical, the
active ingredient in Bayer/Monsantos Roundup herbicide. The government had
stopped imports of glyphosate since late 2019, citing the World Health
Organizations warning that the chemical is a probable carcinogen.
The prohibitions on genetically modified corn, which appear toward the end
of the decree, have more profound implications. The immediate ban on permits
for cultivation of GM corn formalizes current restrictions, ordered by
Mexican courts in 2013 when a citizen lawsuit challenged government
permitting of experimental GM corn planting by Monsanto and other
multinational seed companies on the grounds of the contamination threat they
posed to Mexicos rich store of native corn varieties.
The import ban cites the same environmental threats but goes further,
advancing the López Obrador administrations goals of promoting greater food
self-sufficiency in key crops. As the decree states:
[W]ith the objective of achieving self-sufficiency and food sovereignty,
our country must be oriented towards establishing sustainable and culturally
adequate agricultural production, through the use of agroecological
practices and inputs that are safe for human health, the countrys
biocultural diversity and the environment, as well as congruent with the
agricultural traditions of Mexico.
Chronicle of a Decree Foretold
Andrés López Obrador (center) in San Baltazar Chichicapam, Oaxaca, March
2016. (Israel Rosas83, CC BY-SA 4.0. )
Such policies should come as no surprise. In his campaign, López Obrador
committed to such measures. Unprecedented support from rural voters were
critical to his landslide 2018 electoral victory, with his new Movement for
National Renewal (Morena) claiming majorities in both houses of Congress.
Still, industry and U.S. government officials seemed shocked that their
lobbying had failed to stop López Obrador from acting.
The pressure campaign was intense, as Carey Gillam explained in a Feb. 16
Guardian expose on efforts by Bayer/Monsanto, industry lobbyist CropLife,
and U.S. government officials to deter the glyphosate ban.
According to email correspondence obtained by the Center for Biological
Diversity through Freedom of Information Act requests, officials in the
Trump administrations Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of
Agriculture and office of the U.S. Trade Representative were in touch with
Bayer representatives and warned Mexican officials that restrictions could
be in violation of the revised North American Free Trade Agreement, now
rebranded by the Trump Administration as the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement
(USMCA).
According to the emails, CropLife president Chris Novak last March sent a
letter to Robert Lighthizer, USTRs ambassador, arguing that Mexicos
actions would be incompatible with Mexicos obligations under USMCA.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, left, in 2017, having lunch
with U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in the dining
room of USDA headquarters in Washington. (USDA, Preston Keres)
In May, Lighthizer followed through, writing to Graciela Márquez Colín,
Mexicos minister of economy, warning that GMO crop and glyphosate matters
threatened to undermine the strength of our bilateral relationship. An
earlier communication argued that Mexicos actions on glyphosate, which
Mexico had ceased importing, were without a clear scientific
justification.
Nothing could be further from the truth, according to Victor Suárez,
Mexicos undersecretary of agriculture for food and competitiveness. There
is rigorous scientific evidence of the toxicity of this herbicide, he told
me, citing the WHO findings and an extensive literature review carried out
by Mexicos biosafety commission Cibiogem.
And even though most imported U.S. corn is used for animal feed, not direct
human consumption, a study carried out by María Elena Álvarez-Buylla, now
head of CONACYT, the governments leading scientific body, documented the
presence of GM corn sequences in many of Mexicos most common foods. Some 90
percent of tortillas and 82 percent of other common corn-based foods
contained GM corn.
Mexico needs to be especially cautious, according to Suárez, because corn is
so widely consumed, with Mexicans on average eating one pound of corn a day,
one of the highest consumption levels in the world.
While the glyphosate restrictions are based on concerns about human health
and the environment, the phaseout of GM corn is justified additionally on
the basis of the threat of contamination of Mexicos native corn varieties
and the traditional intercropped milpa. The final article in the decree
states the purpose is to contribute to food security and sovereignty and
to offer a special measure of protection to native corn.
The ban on GM corn cultivation has been a longstanding demand ever since the
previous administration of Enrique Peña Nieto granted permission to
Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and a host of other multinational seed companies
to begin experimental planting in northern Mexico.
Such permits were halted in 2013 by a Mexico court injunction based on a
claim from 53 farmer, consumer and environmental organizations the
self-denominated Demanda Colectiva that GM corn cultivation threatened to
contaminate native varieties of corn through inadvertent cross-pollination.
In tractor caravan to Mexico City, a farmers protests sign says Mexico
Free of Transgenics, undated. (Enrique Perez S./ANEC)
It is difficult to imagine a worse place to grow GM corn than Mexico, said
Adelita San Vicente, the lead spokesperson for the plaintiffs who is now
working in López Obradors environment ministry, when I interviewed her in
2014 for my book, Eating Tomorrow (which includes a chapter on the GM corn
issue). Such contamination was well-documented and the courts issued the
injunction citing the potential for permanent damage to the environment.
As Judge Walter Arrellano Hobelsberger wrote in a 2014 decision, The use
and enjoyment of biodiversity is the right of present and future
generations.
Mexicos Self-Sufficiency Campaign
Blue agave fields in Tequila, in Mexicos Jalisco State, 2017. (T2O media
México, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Mexicos farmer and environmental organizations were quick to praise the
decree, though many warned that it is only a first step and implementation
will be key. These are important steps in moving toward ecological
production that preserves biodiversity and agrobiodiversity forged by
small-scale farmers over millennia, wrote Greenpeace Mexico and the
coalition Without Corn There is No Country.
Malin Jonsson of Semillas de Vida (Seeds of Life), one of the plaintiffs in
the court case, told me, This is a first step toward eliminating
glyphosate, withdrawing permits for GM maize cultivation and eliminating the
consumption of GM maize. To end consumption we have to stop importing GM
maize from the United States by increasing Mexicos maize production.
Mexico imports about 30 percent of its corn each year, overwhelmingly from
the United States. Almost all of that is yellow corn for animal feed and
industrial uses.
López Obradors commitment to reducing and, by 2024, eliminating such
imports reflects his administrations plan to ramp up Mexican production as
part of the campaign to increase self-sufficiency in corn and other key food
crops wheat, rice, beans and dairy.
Mexican farmers have long complained that since NAFTA was enacted in 1994
ultra-cheap U.S. corn has driven down prices for Mexican farmers. The
proposed import restrictions would help López Obradors Mexico First
agricultural policies while bringing needed development to rural areas.
Will Biden Administration Block Action?
President Joe Biden talks with Mexicos President Andrés Manuel López
Obrador on Jan. 22, in the Oval Office. (White House, Adam Schultz)
Industry organizations on both sides of the border have complained bitterly
about the proposed bans.
The import of genetically modified grain from the U.S. is essential for
many products in the agrifood chain, said Laura Tamayo, spokeswoman for
Mexicos National Farm Council (CNA), who is also a regional corporate
director for Bayer. Bayers agrochemical unit Monsanto makes weedkiller
Roundup and the GMO corn designed to be used with the pesticide.
This decree is completely divorced from reality, said José Cacho,
president of Mexicos corn industry chamber CANAMI, the 25-company group
that includes top corn millers like Gruma, cereal maker Kellogg, and
commodity trader Cargill.
Juan Cortina, president of CNA, said his members might sue the government
over the bans. I think there will need to be legal challenges brought by
all the people who use glyphosate and genetically-modified corn, he told
Reuters, adding that he also expects U.S. exporters to appeal to provisions
of the USMCA trade pact to have the measures declared illegal.
Industry sources also warned that Mexico would never be able to meet its
corn needs without U.S. exports and that U.S. farmers would be harmed by the
presumed loss of the Mexican export market. Others quickly pointed out that
Mexico was not banning U.S. exports, just GM corn exports.
U.S. farmers are perfectly capable of producing non-GM corn at comparable
prices, according to seed industry sources, so the ruling could encourage
the development of a premium market in the United States for non-GMO corn,
something U.S. consumers have been demanding for years.
Such pressures may present an early test for President Joe Biden and his
nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, whose confirmation
hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25. Tai won high marks for helping get
stricter labor and environmental provisions into the agreement that replaced
NAFTA.
Will she and the Biden administration respect Mexicos sovereign right to
enact policies designed to protect the Mexican public and the environment
while promoting Mexican rural development?
Victor Suárez certainly hopes so. Our rationale is based on the
precautionary principle in the face of environmental risks as well as the
right of the Mexican government to take action in favor of the public good,
in important areas such as public health and the environment, he told me.
We are a sovereign nation with a democratic government, he continued,
which came to power with the support of the majority of citizens, one that
places compliance with our constitution and respect for human rights above
all private interests.
Timothy A. Wise is a senior advisor with the Institute for Agriculture and
Trade Policy and the author of Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family
Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food.
This article is from Inter Press Service.