U.S. Grain Council: American Growers Have Benefited from NAFTA

With recently becoming the number one corn importer, Mexico is proving to be an important market for U.S. growers.  Ryan LeGrand serves as the U.S. Grains Council director in Mexico.  He said last crop year, 2015-16, the U.S. shipped over 15 million tons of corn south of the border.

“And if you look at the calendar year this year of 2016 we’re going to get really close to 14 million tons.  So that will be two straight years of record corn imports for Mexico."

Japan use to be the top importer of U.S. Corn, but LeGrand says Mexico just recently took the top position.  Under NAFTA, LeGrand says grain trade has quadrupled between the U.S. and Mexico.

“Animal sectors have greatly benefited from the phasing out of tariffs and quotas for U.S. corn and other grains to Mexico.  When NAFTA was implemented, the Mexican animal sector was really in its infancy, and now has grown into a state of the art industry.”

He added if NAFTA is weakened in the future, farmers in the U.S. will feel the pinch.