Coalition of 80 US workers group petition Biden to halt interference with Mexico’s sovereignty

President Joe Biden of the United State (US) has been petitioned by a coalition of 80 U.S. worker groups spread across the agricultural, consumer, environmental, public health sectors, protesting the US President’s interference with the internal policies of the Mexican government. The protesting groups, in a letter dated April 29 to prominent state actors in the Biden administration, demanding them to “respect Mexico’s sovereignty and refrain from interfering with its right to enact health-protective policies”, notably, the prohibition of the herbicide glyphosate and the production of genetically modified corn.

The coalition’s protest letter on the Mexican policies and U.S. interference was said to be published in English and Spanish; and was addressed to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack and the U.S. Trade Representative, Katherine Tai. The letter was said to be signed by Kristin Schafer, Executive Director of Pesticide Action Network, North America.

Schafer in the petition declared: “We call on Secretary Vilsack and Trade Representative Tai, as key leaders in the new administration, to respect Mexico’s decision to protect both public health and the integrity of Mexican farming.

“It is completely unacceptable for U.S. public agencies to be doing the bidding of pesticide corporations like Bayer, who are solely concerned with maintaining their bottom-line profits.”

It was disclosed that Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, his New Year’s Eve decree caused uproar in the agribusiness world.

Agrobusiness specialist, Timothy A. Wise of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (ITAP), had been cited to have earlier the year observed: “His administration sent an even stronger aftershock two weeks later, clarifying that the government would also phase out GM corn imports in three years and the ban would include not just corn for human consumption, but yellow corn destined primarily for livestock.

“Mexico imports about 30% of its corn each year, overwhelmingly from the United States.”

He had maintained: “almost all of that is yellow corn for animal feed and industrial uses. López Obrador’s commitment to reducing and, by 2024, eliminating such imports reflects his administration’s plan to ramp up Mexican production as part of the campaign to increase self-sufficiency in corn and other key food crops.”

It was gathered that the Director of Pesticide Action Network in Mexico, Fernando Bejarano, had declared: “we are part of the No Maize No Country Campaign, a broad coalition of peasant organizations, nonprofit NGOs, academics and consumers which support the presidential decree and fight for food sovereignty with the agroecological transformation of agricultural systems that guarantee the right to produce and consume healthy, nutritious food, free of pesticides and transgenics.

“We reject the pressure from corporations, such as Bayer-Monsanto, and their CropLife trade association – which are working in both the United States and Mexico to undermine the presidential decree that phases out the use of glyphosate and transgenic corn.”

The letter was said to have revealed U.S. government documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity through a Freedom of Information Act request.

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The government documents were said to have exposed that CropLife America and Bayer AG, which had glyphosate-based herbicide developer Monsanto in 2018, worked with U.S. officials to lobby against Mexico’s trade protection policy.

Carey Gillam was cited to have in a media report in the middle of February, highlighted:

“The emails reviewed by the Guardian come from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and other U.S. agencies. They detail worry and frustration with Mexico’s position. One email makes a reference to staff within López Obrador’s administration as ‘vocal anti-biotechnology activists’, and another email states that Mexico’s health agency (Cofepris) is becoming a big-time problem.”

The coalition in the letter to Vilsack and Tai, further declared: “This interference and pressure from the agrochemical industry is continuing. On March 22, industry representatives sent a letter directed to your attention as leaders of USTR and USDA, identifying Mexico’s planned phaseout of glyphosate and genetically modified corn as a ‘leading concern’ for agribusiness interests and the pesticide industry (represented by the pesticide industry’s trade group, CropLife America).

“We strongly object to any interference by U.S. government officials or agribusiness interests in a sovereign state’s right to enact policy measures to protect the health and well-being of its people.

“We urge your agencies to resist and reject these ongoing efforts.

“We welcome the administration’s stated commitment to listening to the science, improving public health, protecting the environment and limiting exposure to dangerous chemicals and pesticides, while holding polluters accountable and prioritizing environmental justice, particularly, for communities of color and low-income communities.”

The letter maintained: “We trust that these stated commitments, as well as your dedication to ‘fairness for farmers,’ extend equally to other countries and include respect for other nations and peoples’ rights to self-determination.”

Other signatories to the letter were identified to include the American Sustainable Business Council, Beyond Pesticides, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, Indigenous Environmental Network, ITAP and Organic Consumers Association.