Coalition requests that nations address any possible trade barriers.
MEXICO CITY Leaders from the United States, Mexico, and Canada who are meeting this week in Mexico City have been encouraged by seventeen agriculture groups to seize a “extraordinary opportunity” to boost trade in agricultural products throughout North America. Additionally, the groups advocated for the “fast resolution” of certain trade barriers, such as Mexico’s planned prohibition on the use of transgenic corn in certain applications.
The request was made during this week’s North American Leaders Summit in Mexico City, where leaders of the three nations—US President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—met to discuss trade and migration-related issues.
The alliance of seventeen agricultural organizations served as a reminder of the historical significance of the North American Free commerce Agreement (NAFTA) in launching integrated markets and complementary commerce in agricultural goods. The group claimed that the agreement improved food security, agricultural sustainability, and wealth across the continent. The letter claimed that NAFTA and its successor, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), had created “the largest trilateral agricultural trade relationship in the world, positioning North America as a critical region for sustaining global food security” by increasing intracontinental trade from $7.7 billion in 1994 to $67.1 billion in 2021, a 770% increase.
Recent food-related challenges, some of which were sparked by the COVID-19 outbreak, have brought attention to the advantages of North America’s strong agricultural trading framework, the group noted. Because of North America’s “extensively integrated markets that have ensured our regional food security and maintained robust trade and investment relationships between our industries and consumers, despite significant uncertainty in global markets,” the coalition claimed that problems with food security and disruptions to global supply chains were less noticeable there.
In order to continue bolstering North American trade in agricultural products for the benefit of consumers, the environment, and the prosperity of our rural communities, the group urged the US, Mexico, and Canada to “adapt to the challenges experienced over the past several years in international trade.”
According to the group, there are numerous prospects inside the framework of the USMCA, which is referred to as T-MEC in Mexico and CUSMA in Canada.
You may also like:
Food security in emerging nations: issues and remedies
Are drinks the secret to increasing cannabis use among consumers?
Managing the lack of labour for mushroom picking
“North American markets can embrace technology that advances food security, agricultural sustainability, and rural prosperity and foster a variety of cost-effective food choices for our consumers through science- and risk-based policies that are efficient, predictable, and compliant with international obligations,” the coalition stated. In order to reduce the environmental impact of agricultural output and boost productivity in a sustainable manner, it is imperative that novel agricultural technology be used. These discoveries can improve food security across North America and significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions along the entire agricultural supply chain.
Lastly, the coalition urged the committees operating under the USMC’s auspices to exchange and harmonize best practices, guarantee that disagreements are promptly resolved, and expeditiously settle “trade disputes and irritants related to agriculture, particularly including Mexico’s proposed ban on certain uses of biotech corn and other agricultural technologies.”
Finally, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has stated that the Biden administration will not budge on Mexico’s proposed ban on corn that is cultivated with specific herbicides and biotechnology. Although Mexico has lobbied for a delay in implementation of the proposed ban until 2025, some US politicians are urging US officials to act quickly.
Speaking to reporters on January 9 at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Secretary Vilsack stated, “There’s no reason to compromise.”
The amount of US white corn sent to Mexican food processors and tortilla manufacturers is less than that of feed corn. President Obrador of Mexico stated he would wait to see the findings of additional safety studies on feed corn, but he remained firm in his decision to outlaw the processing of GMO white corn.
The coalition was formed by the following 17 organizations: the US Dairy Export Council, Mexico’s National Agriculture Council, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the National Corn Growers Association, the National Grain and Feed Association, the National Milk Producers Federation, the National Oilseed Processors Association, the North American Export Grain Association, the North American Meat Institute, the North American Millers’ Association, and the American Farm Bureau Federation.