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Mexico heads meet with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

Mexico City, Mexico — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Thomas Vilsack. The pair met Monday with the Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development, Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon and the Finance Secretary of Mexico, Rogelio Ramírez de la O.

AMLO highlighted that in three years, agro-industrial trade between the two countries has increased to $64 billion from $47.4 billion, a growth of 35 percent.

“We had a very good meeting. (…) The future will continue to be promising,” he said.

Villalobos said Lopez Obrador has asked ministers for proposals on how to contain food inflation after Mexican inflation hit 7.29 percent in the first half of March.

Vilsack is in Mexico to discuss “shared priorities including open trade, science-based policy making and sustainable and climate-smart agricultural production,” the two governments said in a statement.

U.S. and Mexican authorities have agreed to an April visit by Mexican officials when they will finalize expanded access to the Mexican market no later than May 15 for all U.S. table stock and chipping potatoes, the statement said.

“Next Thursday, we will have a new meeting to collect information in order to have a proposal,” Vilsack said.

Other dignitaries including the Acting Undersecretary of Commerce and Foreign Agricultural Affairs of the United States, Jason Hafemeister, the US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, the Minister Counselor for Agricultural Affairs, Holly Higgins and the advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture, Douglas McKalip, participated in the meeting.