Mexico must allow potato imports: US
Mexico must now allow imports of US potatoes, demanded Ron Wyden, chairman of the US Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Mike Crapo.
Mexico limited US imports to a strip just 16 miles below the border.
Although Mexico claims to be making progress, the ban is already two decades old.
Potato imports
«Mexico must immediately put an end to this unscientific prohibition to comply with the commitments of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA),» said both senators in a letter they sent this Wednesday to trade representative Katherine Tai.
On the other hand, they indicated that despite agreeing to rapidly consider applications for the approval of biotech products through a transparent and science-based process and guarantee that its food safety measures are supported by science, Mexico has not considered or approved applications for innovative biotech products from the United States properly.
In fact, the only decision of the Mexican government was to issue a rejection that lacked adequate scientific justification.
In addition, Mexico announced its intention to phase out biotech corn for human consumption by 2024, a “worrying step” that would negatively affect access to the largest corn export market in the United States.
Dairy products
A T-MEC panel found that Canada’s policy of reserving portions of its dairy TRQs for domestic producers violated its market access commitments, and Canada must comply by February 3, 2022.
On this, according to both senators, the United States Trade Representation (USTR) should examine the implementation of this decision, as well as the implementation by Canada of its other commitments of the T-MEC on the price of milk and export surcharges.
