President Claudia Sheinbaum admitted this Tuesday that there is still no date to reopen the border for livestock exports, although she stressed that Washington is aware of the progress against the screwworm that Mexico has made after her meeting with the US Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins.
“Yes, there is still no date, but she left with the conviction, she said it like this, that we are doing everything we have to do to prevent the screwworm from reaching our northern border. And that a lot of things are being done with a lot of professionalism and inspection,” said the president during her morning press conference.
The closure of the border to Mexican livestock, decreed by the United States, almost a year ago, is due to the outbreak of the cattle screwworm, a plague that affects the livestock sector and that led the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to temporarily suspend imports of live animals from Mexico.
Sheinbaum noted that Rollins “is aware” that the closure of the border for livestock exports also affects the United States.
“Even the price of meat, which has risen,” he warned.
Sheinbaum explained that both parties agreed on the need to prevent the spread of the parasite.
“We agree that what we do not want is for there to be an infection that arrives or a spread of this worm to the north of our country. But she left very convinced that we are working adequately for both countries,” she stated.
Read more: Mexico and the US review advances on screwworm; There is no reopening date yet.
Sheinbaum affirms that Mexico is looking for a mechanism to export livestock
Likewise, he reported that Mexico made 30% progress in the construction of a plant for the production of sterile flies, used in the eradication of the screwworm and expected it to be ready by mid-2026.
He explained that the technical teams of both governments will continue work to establish scientific and verifiable criteria that determine the reopening of the border and avoid untimely closures.
“It remained to analyze all the details of the technical part, which have already been analyzed, and be certain of what we are asking for: that there be no surprise, let’s say, a subjectivity, that the border opens as happened recently and three days later they closed it because a contaminated animal was found in Veracruz,” he said.
He insisted, in this sense, that Mexico seeks an objective and transparent mechanism.
“What we say is that there be a series of technical indicators to say whether it is closed or not, based on these clear technical indicators. And that is what is very soon to be resolved, with the will of both governments to open the border as soon as possible,” he said.
Livestock imports from Mexico play an important role in the US, averaging more than one million head annually for decades, representing approximately 60% of live cattle imports and about 3% of the national herd.
This makes Mexico one of the main suppliers of live cattle to the United States.
So far, the Mexican sector has estimated losses of 1.3 billion dollars, according to data from the National Agricultural Council (CNA), which reported the interruption of shipping to the United States of at least 650,000 heads of cattle due to the closure generated by the proliferation of the screwworm in the Mexican southeast.
With information from EFE
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