On a visit to Washington, the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade, Alejandro Encinas Nájera, met with the Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Jayme White, to discuss the three issues that have caused conflicts between the two countries: energy, labor and the environment.
(Vanguardia).- On the one hand, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released a statement in which it said that the Deputy Trade Representative, Jayme White, “highlighted the importance of moving forward with ongoing consultations under the T-MEC with respect to Mexico’s energy measures and the enforcement of Mexican environmental laws related to fisheries”.
This is because the three partners of the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) agreed to hold a third round of consultations -between December 2022 and January 2023- in order to reach an agreement and be able to avoid the panel. In addition, White expressed his deep concern about the restrictions faced by electronic payment service providers in the Mexican market.
There is great concern
At a time when several private sector organizations and U.S. lawmakers are pressuring Joe Biden’s administration to initiate a panel against Mexico over bans on GM corn imports, White told Encinas Nájera that there is “great concern regarding Mexico’s biotech policies, including possible disruptions to GM corn exports.
In a tweet, Mexico’s Ministry of Economy said that Encinas Nájera spoke with White about “labor, environmental and energy issues”, in addition to the fact that “Encinas provided details of the proposal that Mexico put on the table to reach an agreement regarding corn imports“.
This comes a week after the Secretary of Economy, Raquel Buenrostro, commented that “an interpretation was given beyond what was intended” to the decree of December 31, 2020 by which it was announced that as of 2024 the importation of transgenic corn will be prohibited. On December 8, Buenrostro assured that they are working on a “modification” to the text because it is not prohibited for fodder or industrial consumption, but only for human consumption.
“The decree banned corn for human consumption, and left open corn for industrial use and fodder, but it has transition conditions.”
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