LatinNews Daily - 02 December 2022

*Mexico’s economy ministry (SE) has announced that Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro has met with US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai in Washington to discuss the ongoing dispute settlement consultations related to Mexico’s energy policies. The US and Canada requested consultations under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in July, stating that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s nationalist energy policies violated terms of the agreement. According to the SE, Buenrostro proposed establishing working groups, which would meet during December and early January to discuss the different aspects of the energy consultations. The progress would then be presented at the North American Leaders’ Summit, set to be held in Mexico from 9-10 January. The SE stressed that Mexico was seeking to resolve the dispute in the consultation phase and avoid the need to establish a dispute panel. A USTR statement said that Tai had highlighted “the urgency of prompt and meaningful progress” in the energy consultations, as well as “the importance of avoiding any disruption in US corn exports to Mexico, including for both [animal] feed and human consumption”. This refers to recent US concerns over López Obrador’s intention to halt all imports of genetically modified products, in particular for human consumption, by January 2024. Corn is currently the top US export to Mexico, with biotech corn making up over 90% of US corn crops.

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