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Mexico is ready to hit the U.S. where it hurts: Corn

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Dai101

Banned
Mexico is one of the top buyers of American corn in the world today. And Mexican senator Armando Rios Piter, who leads a congressional committee on foreign relations, says he will introduce a bill this week where Mexico will buy corn from Brazil and Argentina instead of the United States.

It's one of the first signs of potential concrete action from Mexico in response to President Trump's threats against the country.

"I'm going to send a bill for the corn that we are buying in the Midwest and...change to Brazil or Argentina," Rios Piter, 43, told told CNN's Leyla Santiago on Sunday at an anti-Trump protest in Mexico City.

He added: It's a "good way to tell them that this hostile relationship has consequences, hope that it changes."

“I warn you: The openness for grain and agricultural products for Brazil will eat the market that you have today in Mexico,” said Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy secretary in a meeting this week with Stephen Bannon, Peter Navarro, and Jared Kushner, all Trump’s top aides, according to the Mexican press.

Experts say such a bill would be very costly to U.S. farmers.

Corn is the biggest of the US’s $17.7bn in agricultural exports to Mexico, a value that has risen fivefold since the countries signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“The attitude has changed in the last three or four weeks,” says Rajiv Singh, chief executive of Rabobank’s North America wholesale banking business. “Right after the election, people were starting to talk about whether there would be an impact on trade with Mexico, but they were not worried about it.”

Now, with the administration signing order after order, “people are really thinking hard about it,” Mr Singh says.

Mr Trump has already withdrawn from the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal with strong farm-belt support. He has called Nafta, which also includes Canada, “unfair” and a “catastrophe”.

The president’s comments suggest he is more concerned about manufacturing jobs than where food is produced. But US farm groups fear being targeted by Mexico in retaliation. Richard Feltes of commodities broker RJ O’Brien in Chicago, says: “The soft spot for Trump would be hitting back at America’s heartland.” Most states in the US corn belt voted for the president.

Sources: Mexico ready to retaliate by hurting American corn farmers
US farmers rattled by Trump’s Mexico plans

All credit to Lonely1
 
Cheeto Supreme (and many of his supporters) simply don't realize, or don't like to realize, just how much they depend on Mexico. The entire time they instead pretend like they're doing Mexico a favor by doing business with them.
 
It's been fun to watch as a con-man who sold himself to farmers on being a 'master negotiatior' has been outplayed by anyone he butts heads with.
 

HariKari

Member
If Mexico wants to do it to make a point, sure, but it's not like the corn they are going to get is going to be cheaper as a result.
 

Volimar

Member
Loads of fields around where I live in Ohio. Gonna need more subsidies for farmers. I'm sure Republicans will love that.
 

jabuseika

Member
It's the 2002 United States steel tariff all over again.

Good, hit them good, so they realize protectionism is bullshit.
 

Eusis

Member
Probably the region of the country that needs to best understand this man is not working in anyone's best interests but those of white supremacists who only want to see the world burn.
 

samn

Member
Less corn in the diet would be fantastic. Unfortunately healthier alternatives would still be expensive.
 

Codeblue

Member
Feel sorry for the Mid-West. It's not like they voted for this.

I never want to see the "Trump voters didn't vote for X or Y, they voter for Z". It's all the same, and he feels like he has a mandate for all the horrible garbage he said he would do. If you wanted to keep selling corn, you shouldn't have voted for the racist that promised a trade war.
 

studyguy

Member
Market forces on crop imports/exports are nutty. Boots on the ground I've seen growers who have just been regular guys for years have massive profit margins if a market closes up like they did for Cilantro last year during that ecoli scare from Mexican imports. Likewise I've seen people go absolutely tits up during bad seasons or massive import markets. It's not a fun time to be a grower for certain segments of the market.
 
Cheeto Supreme (and many of his supporters) simply don't realize, or don't like to realize, just how much they depend on Mexico. The entire time they instead pretend like they're doing Mexico a favor by doing business with them.

The twist is that Cheetos are made of corn.
 

Maximo

Member
If Mexico wants to do it to make a point, sure, but it's not like the corn they are going to get is going to be cheaper as a result.

nVDXvA.gif
 

Sami+

Member
I refuse to feel sorry for White Republican voters, regardless of how dumb and poor they are.

Fuck 'em. Go Mexico.
 

Dishwalla

Banned
Wonder if this will affect gas prices as well, since there is now a percentage of ethanol in our gas, and I can imagine the cost of production of ethanol would go up because of this.
 
I hope they do it. Trump is the kind of bully who keeps doing shit until you hit him hard.

He'll still probably keep at it, but he won't be able to do much if the Republicans turn on him.
 
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