U.S., Mexico work toward closing agricultural trade gaps in NAFTA

U.S., Mexico work toward closing agricultural trade gaps in NAFTA U.S. and Mexican government officials met in Washington Tuesday to renew their commitment to close certain gaps in agricultural trade under the North American Free Trade Agreement by Jan. 1.
   The U.S.-Mexico Consultative Committee on Agriculture (CCA) agreed to meet following the renewal of the bilateral forum by the two governments in March. Two-way agricultural trade between the United States and Mexico topped $20 billion in 2006.
   Among the outcomes of the meeting, both countries agreed to conduct several technical assistance projects in Mexico in the corn and dry bean areas to help prepare these Mexican producers for NAFTA implementation.
   Officials also discussed pending U.S. and Mexican farm legislation, biotechnology, and a number of sanitary and phytosanitary issues, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement. The next CCA meeting will be held in Mexico in November.
   The CCA discussions followed a meeting of the U.S.-Mexico Sweetners Task Force on May 7. The task force was created by the July 2006 Agreement on Sweetners Trade and includes both government and private sector members from each country.
   The task force meeting allowed private sector representatives of the sweetners industry, including sugar and high-fructose corn syrup producers as well as sweetners users, to offer advice to government officials about the operation of the agreement and the transition to full duty-free trade in sweetners on Jan. 1, the USDA said.