A Mexican lawmaker wants to boycott buying corn from the U.S. after President Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about building a border wall and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. Sen. Rios Piter said he plans to introduce a bill this week that would push Mexico to instead buy corn from Brazil or Argentina.
Piter, who leads a congressional committee on foreign relations, shared his plan during an anti-Trump protest in Mexico City. He said boycotting Midwestern corn would be a “good way to tell [the U.S.] that this hostile relationship has consequences, hope that it changes.” Trump has said he will force Mexico to pay for a wall along the U.S.’ southern border and vowed to impose taxes of up to 35 percent on Mexican imports.
Piter’s threat could make a difference for Midwest farmers. Mexico purchased the most corn from the U.S. in 2015 compared with any other country except for Japan. In all, Mexico spends about $2.4 billion on U.S. corn each year. Most recently, the U.S. sent 5 million metric tons of corn to Mexico since September, up from 8 percent in 2015. Iowa and Illinois lead the U.S. in corn production.
“If we do indeed see a trade war where Mexico starts buying from Brazil…we’re going to see it affect the corn market and ripple out to the rest of the ag economy,” said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at DTN, an agricultural management firm.
The U.S. is the world’s top corn exporter and producer. Mexico uses the corn in part to sustain its ubiquitous taco industry that relies on corn-based tortillas.
Open trade between the two nations has helped fuel the corn export market. In 1995, just before the North American Free Trade Agreement became law, Mexico only purchased about $391 million in corn from the U.S.
Trump has said he might renegotiate NAFTA to keep U.S. jobs at home, although a nonpartisan congressional research report found manufacturing jobs were not being lost to Mexico because of the trade deal.
Mexico’s economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, said in January Mexico is prepared to “immediately” respond to any tariffs from the new White House.
“It’s very clear that we have to be prepared to immediately be able to neutralize the impact of a measure of that nature,” Guajardo said.
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