Challenging Mexico GMO Policy The U.S. formally requested USMCA dispute settlement consultations with Mexico over its proposed ban on GMO corn. The move comes months after initiating informal discussions that have gone nowhere. Former Mexican agricultural trade negotiator Kenneth Smith Ramos has expressed skepticism that his country would impose the GMO corn import restriction but Mexico City’s failure to approve any new traits, including those for cotton and canola effectively constitutes a ban. Notable is that Mexico’s basis for the ban is human health and safety. There are many countries that prohibit food crops that have been genetically modified but the language in the USMCA is stronger in this regard. Inequitable E...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.