A new economic impact report shows that Mexico's impending ban on GM Corn and agricultural biotechnology policy will hurt economies on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border and worsen food security for Mexican citizens, as well as inflation and tension in supply chains are affecting consumers around the world.

"The proposed ban will force U.S. grain handling systems to split into two streams (GM and non-GM corn), a more expensive approach, discourages innovation and subjects supply chains to increased tension and volatility," says the report, prepared by World Perspectives Inc. croplife international.

Under the ban, Mexico will pay more for corn imports, worth an additional $4.4 billion over the next 10 years. Corn tortilla prices would increase 30% in the first year of the ban and 42% in the second year, worsening food security and reducing consumer spending across Mexico's economy. This translates into the loss of 138,000 jobs and a likely $4.3 billion reduction in Mexico's GDP. In the U.S., economic production falls by $16.5 billion and GDP shrinks US$ 7.95 billion.

On December 31, 2020, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that the country would no longer import genetically modified (GM or gm) maize for human consumption by 2024. Mexico was the largest U.S. corn export market until 2021, when China took first place. Mexico still accounts for nearly a quarter of U.S. corn exports.

Source: Agrolink