NAFTA

Monsanto isn’t likely to get a green light to bring GMO corn seeds into Mexico anytime soon, says Reuters. Last week, the country upheld a 2013 Mexican court decision that banned even test plots of GMO corn in Mexico, because of concerns that the genetically modified varieties might contaminate native corn species through cross-pollination.

U.S. food manufacturers and trucking companies are trying to quickly move product into Mexico in case trade relations between the two countries break down after President Trump promised to renege on the North American Free Trade (NAFTA) agreement, says Reuters. The President has also said he is might push for a 20 percent tax on Mexican imports in order to pay for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Dairy companies wrote to governors of 25 states to ask their help in heading off a change in Canadian dairy policy, due to take effect on Wednesday, that they say will further discourage shipments of ultra-filtered milk and other dairy products to Canada. The dairies say the new National Ingredients Policy violates trade agreements.

Canadian government sources say Ottawa will defend its interests first and may not be able to help Mexico during the NAFTA renegotiations demanded by President Trump, reported Reuters. It quoted a source on the sidelines of a cabinet retreat as saying, "Our national interests come first and the friendship comes second."

More than 60 percent of U.S. red meat exports go to countries involved in NAFTA or TPP, says the U.S. Meat Export Federation, part of the chorus of livestock and meat industry groups worried by the Trump administration upheaval of trade agreements. "The honeymoon with many in agriculture was over before it ever really began, it appears," says Beef magazine, adding, "And many in ag don’t like it."

President Donald Trump plans to meet the leaders of Canada and Mexico soon "to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border," reported Reuters. After China, the U.S. neighbors are the top markets for U.S. farm exports, forecast to buy 29 percent of ag exports and be the source of 44 percent of U.S. agricultural imports, so farm groups want to avoid adverse effects of reworked rules.

Two countries that account for one-third of U.S. farm exports, China and Mexico, are the main reasons for a slightly higher forecast for ag exports this fiscal year, says USDA. Exports are now estimated at $134 billion, up $1 billion from the August estimate, with sales to China and Mexico up $300 million apiece.

Traders and industry analysts say campaign promises by President-elect Donald Trump to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement have spooked the cross-border grain trade as well as driving down the value of the peso, said Reuters.

The United States is the world's leading beef producer and also imports more beef than any other nation, says a special article in Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and Trade.

The United States is frustrated with Canada "because it believes Ottawa promised greater foreign access to its dairy and poultry markets as a condition of joining" the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks, "and yet has offered nothing," reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.

The Commerce Department says it will impose countervailing duties of 3-17 percent on sugar imported from Mexico following a preliminary ruling that Mexico unfairly subsidized its producers, said the Financial Times.

The Commerce Department announced it will open an investigation into charges that Mexico is dumping subsidized sugar in the United States