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What We're Watching: US-Mexico corn fight, Chinese crackdown

A protester wears a mask in the shape of corn during an anti-GMO rally in Mexico City.

A protester wears a mask in the shape of corn during an anti-GMO rally in Mexico City.

REUTERS/Bernardo Montoya
By Alex Kliment,
Alex Kliment
Alex wears a few different caps and tips them all regularly. He writes for the GZERO Daily, works as a field correspondent for GZERO's nationally syndicated TV show GZERO WORLD WITH IAN BREMMER, and writes/directs/voices GZERO's award-winning puppet satire show PUPPET REGIME. Prior to joining GZERO, Alex worked as an analyst covering Russia and broader Emerging Markets for Eurasia Group. He has also written for the Financial Times from Washington, DC, and Sao Paulo Brazil. In his spare time, he makes short films and composes scores for long ones. He studied history and Slavic literature at Columbia and has a Master's from Johns Hopkins SAIS. He's a native New Yorker, a long-suffering Mets fan, and owns too many bicycles.
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Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks
Willis Sparks is a senior editor for GZERO Daily. He is also a Director in the Global Macro practice at Eurasia Group, where he has worked since 2005. He has made speeches on international politics on every continent except Antarctica. Willis holds degrees from Brown University, the Juilliard School, Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He also holds an honorary degree from the Moscow Art Theatre School. A native of Macon, Georgia, Willis has worked as a stuntman at New York's Metropolitan Opera. As a child, he declined an opportunity to spend an afternoon riding the Great American Scream Machine, a rollercoaster, with Ronald McDonald, for money. He has never regretted that decision.
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November 30, 2022
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US and Mexico spar over corn

Mexico and the United States are on a collision course over an issue of serious economic concern to farmers on both sides of the border: Mexico’s imports of US corn. Mexico is the world’s second-largest importer of corn (after China), and much of it comes from the country’s giant neighbor to the north. Before he became president in 2018, candidate Andres Manuel López Obrador promised to halt the import of genetically modified corn by January 2024 over fears that GMO seeds would threaten Mexico’s own corn varieties. A total ban on GMO corn would cut US corn exports to Mexico by half, with major fallout for the US agriculture sector. The Trump and Biden administrations have both tried to bargain with López Obrador over this question, in part by reminding him that US corn is a major source of Mexico’s animal feed and that the quantities sold by the US would be impossible to replace. But so far, Mexico’s president hasn’t budged. With the deadline for action looming, Washington threatened legal action on Monday under the terms of the USMCA trade deal, which was signed by the US, Mexico, and Canada in 2020.

China tracks down protesters

The anti-government protests over China’s zero-COVID policy have subsided for now — except for an overnight flare-up in Guangzhou — but when it comes to tracking down those responsible, Chinese authorities are just getting started. Several protesters in Beijing have reportedly been contacted by people identifying themselves as police and demanding they report to local precincts to testify about the demonstrations. Protesters also say they are frantically scrubbing their online histories to avoid being swept up in a fresh crackdown. The authorities, of course, have to tread carefully — it’s important to show the fist against protesters who called for Xi Jinping’s ouster, but as my colleague Willis points out, “the ground is very dry right now, and any spark could set things aflame again.” To try to dampen things a bit, authorities in some cities have relaxed — but not eliminated — the COVID quarantine guidelines and ramped up vaccination campaigns for the vulnerable elderly. But the world’s second-largest economy and biggest autocracy will continue to wrestle with the tradeoffs between public health, popular outrage, economic damage, and political power.
usmcachina protestsasiachinazero covidus-mexico cornus-mexico

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