Mexico, China, and the future of biotech trade

Congress discussed these issues this week during two hearings with U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai. Here’s what they said.

ICYMI: The U.S. Trade Representative appeared before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and the House Ways & Means Committee on Thursday to discuss President Biden’s 2021 trade agenda. 

One issue Biden's USTR must address: Mexico. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government has turned its back on biotechnology—by failing to issue biotech import approvals since 2018 and establish a regulatory approach to gene-edited products. He also issued a decree on December 31, 2020, to phase out imports of biotech corn for human consumption by 2024. 

Read: Unpacking Mexico’s economic and environmental paradox 

Members expressed concerns about Mexico’s treatment of ag biotech.Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) (01:12:41) and Rep. Adrian Smith (R-NE) (01:15:28) raised Mexico’s failure to adhere to USMCA commitments and issue biotech import approvals as well as its recent decree to phase out biotech corn. Similarly, Senate Finance Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-ID) expressed concerns about Mexico’s treatment of ag biotech in his opening remarks (00:33:52). 

Ambassador Tai said she will raise the issue with her Mexican counterpart next week, during the first meeting of the USMCA's Free Trade Commission. 

Other key ag issues discussed included… 

Unscientific sanitary and phytosanitary barriers: Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) raised the need to address unscientific sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to U.S. agricultural products in export markets (01:06:30). Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) requested USTR continue to hold trading partners accountable on more technical issues like sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to agricultural products (01:09:45).

China: Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) highlighted China’s failure to follow through with commitments under the phase 1 trade agreement to complete biotechnology approvals in an average of two years of an application and to limit regulatory questions and tests to only those necessary to confirm the safety of the product (01:59:50). 

Ambassador Tai acknowledged that there are ag biotech commitments under phase 1, and that USTR should look at China’s performance and assess next steps.    

Where’s USTR’s chief agriculture negotiator? Sen. Stabenow said she looks forward to the nomination of this role (01:08:15), and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) asked the administration to prioritize this nomination (02:43:02).  

BIO will join an ag coalition letter in support of a swift nomination of a chief agriculture negotiator. 

Catch up: What to expect from the Biden administration’s trade agenda

And yes—Members asked USTR a string of tough questions about the TRIPS waiver, too. We'll take a deep dive on Monday with a look at the latest news on vaccine patents.

More Agriculture and Environment News:

Endpoints News: Ginkgo Bioworks raises $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whopping $15B-plus valuation
“In the largest SPAC deal to clear the hurdles to Nasdaq, the biotech that envisioned everything from remaking synthetic meat to a whole new approach to developing drugs has joined forces with one of the biggest disruptors in biotech to slam the Richter scale on dealmaking. 

The Wall Street Journal: Plant-tech firm Benson Hill going public in $2 billion SPAC merger
“The operator of a platform that uses machine learning, simulations and genetics to optimize plant growth, Benson Hill is combining with the SPAC Star Peak Corp. II. Benson Hill says it can develop breeds of crops like soybeans and yellow peas that mature faster, have higher protein content or taste better, saving growers time and resources.”

Reuters: Biofuels processor POET in talks to acquire Flint Hills' ethanol assets
“The deal would increase POET’s potential production capacity for ethanol by more than a third to 3 billion gallons per year.” 

With demand nearing a tipping point, “vaccine hesitancy will soon be the biggest obstacle to reaching herd immunity in the United States,” write BIO’s Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath and the New York Institute of Technology’s Dr. Brian Harper in the New York Daily News. To figure out how to address it, particularly in communities of color, we should look to lessons from the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Vaccine supply will soon outpace demand,finds a recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, which estimated in April that there were only about 27 million American adults left to vaccinate before we hit the “enthusiasm limit.” 

“Inequality within our healthcare system has made Black Americans understandably distrustful of medical authorities,” say Drs. McMurry-Heath and Harper. Similarly, many Latinos in the United States aren’t getting the vaccine due to “misinformation about cost and access, as well as concerns about employment and immigration issues,” reports The New York Times. 

Listen: Voices of Vaccine Hesitancy 

What should we do? Look to the lessons learned from the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 80s/90s, “another infectious-disease crisis that disproportionately impacted minorities” and was similarly fraught with “widespread rumors.” 

We broke through then—“by collaborating with people and institutions who already possessed high levels of trust within communities of color,” including local Black and Hispanic politicians and religious leaders. 

And doing this now, we’re seeing some progress—read the whole thing to learn what’s been working and what else we need to do.

P.S. Watch this space on Monday for the latest news on COVID vaccine patents.

More Health Care News: 

Bloomberg: CureVac, GSK report strong lab data for next-generation shot
“Preclinical studies showed strong immune responses in rats, with significant neutralization of variants first discovered in the U.K., South Africa, and Denmark.” 

NPR: Blind patients hope landmark gene-editing experiment will restore their vision
“The study involves the revolutionary gene-editing technique called CRISPR, which allows scientists to make precise changes in DNA.”

President Biden’s Friday: This afternoon, President Biden will meet with six Dreamers with DACA who work in health care, education, and agriculture, to highlight the important roles immigrants play as essential workers. Cecilia Rouse, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, will join a press briefing at 12:30 PM ET.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: ICYMI, the Senate confirmed Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Dr. Jewel Bronaugh yesterday (BIO joined a letter supporting her nomination). House Republicans are expected to vote today on the new conference chair (the #3 leadership position) following the removal of Rep. Liz Cheney from the post.