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Doud closely watching impending Mexico GMO corn ban

The former chief agriculture negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office says he’s closely watching what happens with Mexico’s proposed GMO corn ban.

Gregg Doud says Mexico’s president has made his position clear on the proposed ban and Doud says he isn’t sure what the US government can say at this point to resolve the issue, “It’s going to have to be the Mexican industry that helps him understand, it’s not in Mexico’s best interest to do battle over this particular topic.”

Last week, Ag Secretary Vilsack met with Mexico’s president discuss the ban in person and the dialogue continues with Mexico. Doud tells Brownfield he is optimistic the situation for yellow corn can be resolved, “but it’s going to take some frank conversations.”

He says there are mechanisms in place to enforce the requirements of the USMCA (U.S./Mexico/Canada Agreement) and to do it quickly, “We can sit down and hammer this thing out in a few weeks. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, it’ll be an interesting test of what was designed in USMCA to keep this kind of thing from becoming a big problem.”

The US has one year to address the issue.

Brownfield’s Carah Hart spoke with Doud at the 2022 Missouri Farm Bureau annual meeting.