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Mexico will not be able to fully replace all the corn it imports by 2024, Deputy Agriculture Minister Victor Suarez said, but the country hopes to cut its purchases between 30 and 40 percent, BTA reported, citing Reuters.

Mexico already meets its white corn needs, but is heavily dependent on imports of yellow corn, which it buys largely from the US as livestock feed.

Mexico may struggle to secure GMO corn imports by 2024.

Earlier this week, U.S. agriculture and trade officials expressed "serious concerns" about Mexico's agricultural biotechnology policies in meetings with their Mexican counterparts, as continuing disagreements threaten decades of booming corn trade between the neighbors.

Washington's concerns center on the Mexican president's push to ban so-called biotech corn, or varieties developed with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), from entering Mexico if intended for human consumption.

The United States accounts for the majority of Mexican corn imports.

"Mexico's proposed approach, which is not based on science, still threatens to disrupt billions of dollars in bilateral agricultural trade, cause severe economic damage to American farmers and Mexican ranchers, and stifle important innovations needed to help producers respond to pressing climate and food security challenges," said Catherine Tye of the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR).

The parties are at loggerheads over a decree issued by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2020 that seeks to end imports of genetically modified corn and the herbicide glyphosate by 2024.

Mexico has decided to delay its ban on purchases of GMO corn from the US until 2025, a decision deemed satisfactory by the US government, Mexican Agriculture Minister Victor Villalobos said last month.

Mexico is one of the largest buyers of US corn, with US farmers sending about 17 million tons of mostly GMO yellow corn to Mexico annually, most of which is used for animal feed.

Mexican authorities have said they will continue to import GM corn for animal feed.

Mexico

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