Mexico imports a record amount of corn from the US, which still denounces obstacles

In the first two months of 2026, the United States exported 3 million 952 thousand 249 tons of corn to Mexico, most of it yellow and transgenic, an unprecedented amount for a similar period, in a context in which the US government intensifies its pressure by pointing out that non-tariff barriers persist in Mexico to imports of grain from that country.

According to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the amount of corn that Mexico purchased from that country in the first two months of 2026 represented an increase of 11 percent compared to the 3 million 549 thousand tons in the same period of 2025.

Only in the first two months of the year, it represented a business of 895 million 815 thousand dollars for American companies, 9 percent more than the 822 million 117 thousand dollars a year ago.

Our country is the United States’ main customer when it comes to corn. Far behind are Japan, which between January and February bought 2 million 460 thousand 108, and South Korea, with 1 million 198 thousand 203 tons. In the fourth and fifth places are Colombia, with 697 thousand tons, and Taiwan, with only 384 thousand tons.

Every year, according to USDA data, the sale of corn from the United States to Mexico represents a total business that exceeds 5 billion dollars, which is largely controlled by transnational corporations, such as Archer Daniels Midland, Bayer, Bunge, Cargill, DeBruce and Bartlett Grain, among others.

According to Ana de Ita, director of the Center for Studies for Change in the Mexican Countryside, these companies dominate the country’s market because they intervene in financing, have taken over the infrastructure, have first-hand information on global supply and demand, participate in the purchase of physical and future goods, are importers and also exporters, in addition to acquiring significant volumes of the national harvest and influencing the setting of international prices based on real and speculative movements.

Despite the multimillion-dollar business represented by the export of corn from the United States to Mexico, in its most recent National Trade Estimates Report, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) continues to point out that in Mexico there are a series of non-tariff barriers that prevent free access of genetically modified corn to Mexican territory.

In particular, the United States government questions the decree issued by Mexico in February 2023, by which the use of genetically modified corn was prohibited in the production of tortillas and dough, in addition to establishing the gradual substitution of this grain in other products intended for human consumption and animal feed. In Washington’s opinion, these provisions restrict effective access for its exports, to the extent that most of the corn it sells abroad, including that destined for Mexico, is transgenic.

As a result of this policy, in August 2023 the United States requested the installation of a dispute settlement panel under the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA), arguing that Mexican measures were not supported by scientific evidence and contravened market access commitments. The panel ruled in favor of the United States in December 2024, after which, in February 2025, the Mexican government annulled the challenged provisions.

However, US authorities have indicated that they will remain attentive to compliance with the commitments assumed by Mexico within the framework of the USMCA, particularly with regard to ensuring that any measure regarding agricultural biotechnology is based on scientific criteria and guarantees agreed market access conditions.