Mexico delays Glyphosate ban again

 The Mexican government has announced that a ban on Glyphosate-containing herbicides, which was due to be implemented at the end of this month, will be delayed until an alternative is found to maintain its agricultural production.

According to a government statement, the presidential decree of February 2023 extended the deadline for the Glyphosate ban until March 31, 2024, subject to the availability of alternatives. "As conditions have not yet been reached to replace Glyphosate in agriculture, the interests of national food security must prevail," the statement said, including other agricultural chemicals that are safe for health and weed control mechanisms that do not involve the use of herbicides.

In addition, the decree bans genetically modified corn for human consumption and calls for phasing out genetically modified corn for animal feed or industrial processing. Mexico says the move is aimed at protecting local varieties of corn. But the move was challenged by the United States, which said it violated market access rules agreed under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Mexico is the top destination for U.S. grain exports, importing $5.4 billion worth of U.S. corn last year, mostly genetically modified, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In order to resolve their differences, the Office of the United States Trade Representative requested the establishment of a USMCA dispute settlement panel in August last year, and the two sides have pending further negotiations to resolve their differences over the GMO corn ban.

It is worth mentioning that Mexico has been in the process of banning glyphosate and genetically modified crops for several years. As early as June 2020, Mexico's Ministry of Environment announced that it would ban Glyphosate-containing herbicides by 2024; In 2021, although the court temporarily lifted the ban, it was subsequently overturned; That same year, Mexican courts rejected an application by the Agricultural Commission to halt the ban.