U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has shared that the U.S. is requesting a dispute settlement consultation with Mexico under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack released a statement following the news, reiterating that USDA is a science- and rules-based organization that values embracing fair and open trade. Vilsack says USDA “fundamentally disagrees” with the position Mexico is taking on the issue of biotechnology, which has been “proven safe for decades.”

Vilsack says the agency is exercising its right under USMCA while supporting “innovation, nutrition security, sustainability, and the mutual success of our farmers and producers.” Other ag groups have taken a stand against Mexico’s decision to keep the plan to ban imports of GMO corn.

The U.S. Grains Council says the country’s decree “violates Mexico’s obligations to use science and risk-based policies to regulate biotechnology in a transparent way and threatens the mutually beneficial trading relationship our two countries have had for decades.”

Read more on efforts to stop Mexico’s anti-biotechnology decisions here.