Member-only story
The Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA), and mexican agriculture*
WITHOUT SEEDS PRIVATIZATION, WITHOUT REFORMING THE FEDERAL LAW OF PLANT VARIETIES AND WITHOUT DEPENDING ON UPOV-91
Collection of signatures during the National Corn Day | Zócalo of Mexico City | September 29, 2022 | Photo: Víctor Manuel Chima Ortíz
The Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA) was signed on November, 2018, by then-American President Donald Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and then-Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
After a year of renegotiations, and already during Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term in office, UMSCA was ratified by the Senate Chamber in Mexico at the end of 2019, and then by the U.S. Legislative Branch in January of this year, so now only the approval by Canada is missing so that, after 90 days of its absolute ratification, the agreement enters into force replacing the current North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
With the entry into force of NAFTA more than 25 years ago, not only direct support for agricultural production, such as guarantee prices, was reduced, but also public policies were not developed to provide access to financing and infrastructure that would allow mexican peasant producers to enter export markets.
The agriculture chapter of USMCA is, in many ways, a continuation of NAFTA because, among other things, it reinforces the imposition of free market policies in regions that still retain their collectivity…
