Mexico Considers Duty-Free Corn Deals With Brazil, Argentina: Financial Times

Mexico, the world's biggest buyer of U.S. corn, is considering offering duty-free access to Brazilian and Argentine corn as an alternative to American imports in a move that could have big consequences for U.S. farmers worried about Donald Trump's trade and tax agenda, the Financial Times reported.Mexico at present imports 98% of its corn from the U.S., and total U.S. farm sales to Mexico were $17.7 billion last year — five times greater than when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into force in 1994. Mexican corn imports from the U.S. were worth $2.3 billion in 2015, according to USDA.But President Donald Trump has said NAFTA is unfair to the U.S. and has vowed to renegotiate the deal or walk away, impelling Mexico to speed up a search for alternative suppliers in South America. "I am pretty optimistic about the possibility of having a deal with these countries soon," Juan Carlos Baker, Mexico's deputy economy minister, told the Financial Times in an interview. "We're pretty far advanced with Brazil... Argentina is a few steps behind," he said, adding that he expected to visit Argentina in April or May and soon after to meet Brazilian officials in his sixth such bilateral meeting since 2015.Baker said Mexico could give South American producers the same terms U.S. farmers now enjoyed. "It's going to be the result of negotiations but... if we want to give zero [tariffs], we have the possibility, if it suits us," he said.