United States, Mexico at Odds Over Mexico’s Ban of Genetically Modified Corn

Anet Aguilar traces her passion for corn back to her grandmother.

In the Mexican state of Baja California where Aguilar lived with her grandmother, flour tortillas were popular. Her grandmother Feliza Ramirez was from Mexico City, though, where she grew up milling corn in her neighborhood’s shared mill and forming it into tortillas daily. When Ramirez moved north, she brought the family’s corn tortilla tradition with her.

Corn, the staple food that defines Mexican cuisine and allowed the country’s ancient civilizations to flourish, is now a source of conflict between the United States and Mexico’s current government.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is moving forward with a plan to limit imports of genetically modified corn from the U.S., despite the looming threat of a formal trade dispute.

The plant at the center of the controversial policy — corn — is both a symbol of Mexico’s cuisine and indigenous cultures, and also the biggest cash crop in the United States.

Mexico is the second biggest buyer of U.S. corn. However, more than 90% of corn in the U.S. is genetically engineered to be resistant to herbicides, insects or both.

“Corn originated in Mexico,” López Obrador said in Spanish in a Feb. 15 speech defending the plan. “It can’t be possible that we have 60, 80 varieties of native corn and we’re allowing the use of genetically modified corn for human consumption.”

The two countries’ respective agriculture and trade representatives have met several times in recent months seeking a compromise.

On March 6, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced it is requesting technical consultations with Mexico under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the free trade agreement between the two