Mexico formally repeals restrictions on GM corn after trade panel ruling

Mexico City | Reuters – Mexico’s government has repealed previous restrictions on genetically-modified (GM) corn for human use, as well for livestock and industrial uses, according to a notice on Thursday in the official gazette.

The United States, which for decades has exported large volumes of GM yellow corn to Mexican buyers, had objected to restrictions put in place by Mexico’s previous government to gradually ban such corn supplies from its northern neighbour.

Mexico, the birthplace of modern corn, has for years prohibited the commercial-scale planting of strains of GM corn, arguing that such varieties would contaminate native strains of the grain. But a long-running dispute has played out over the imports of GM corn, nearly all from U.S. suppliers and mostly used for Mexico’s massive livestock sector as well as other industrial uses.

In December, a trade dispute panel ruled that the Mexican government’s previously enacted restrictions violate the USMCA North American trade accord.

Mexico is a top foreign market for U.S. corn farmers.

On Thursday, President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters that her government is actively reviewing a possible reform that would enshrine the prohibition on planting GM corn into the constitution.