Mexico says U.S. suspension of beef imports because of screwworm is unfair
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MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday described as “unfair” the decision by the Trump administration to suspend imports of Mexican beef cattle for 15 days due to the detection of screwworm in shipments.
Sheinbaum, who has spent the past few months scrambling to offset tariff threats by President Trump, said she hoped the suspension would not result in another economic blow for her country.
“We do not agree with this measure,” she said at her morning news conference on Monday. “The Mexican government has been working on all fronts from the very first moment we were alerted to the screwworm.”
President Trump says he’d like to attack Mexican drug cartels. A unilateral action by the U.S. would be a huge challenge for Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who says her country will “never accept” U.S. intervention on Mexican soil.
The U.S. restricted Mexican cattle shipments in late November following the detection of the pest, but lifted the ban in February after protocols were put in place to evaluate the animals prior to entry into the country. But there has been an “unacceptable northward advancement” of the screwworm, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a statement Sunday.
“The last time this devastating pest invaded the U.S. it took our livestock industry 30 years to recover,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on X. “This can never happen again.”
The screwworm is a larva of the Cochliomyia hominivorax fly that can invade the tissues of any warm-blooded animal, including humans. The parasite enters the skin, causing serious and life-threatening damage and lesions.
Mexico’s Health Ministry issued an epidemiological warning this month after the first human case of screwworm myiasis, or parasitic infestation, was confirmed on April 17 in a 77-year-old woman living in the southern state of Chiapas.
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