Report: Mexico Seeks Deal to Reopen U.S. Border for Cattle Amid Screwworm Crisis
Ag Minister Julio Berdegue to meet U.S. counterpart Brooke Rollins next week as outbreak strains livestock trade
Mexico’s incoming agriculture minister, Julio Berdegue, will travel to Washington next week in hopes of securing an agreement to reopen the U.S. border to Mexican cattle, Reuters reported Thursday. The border has been closed since May due to an outbreak of the flesh-eating screwworm parasite, which has spread northward from Central America and deep into Mexico, threatening livestock and trade flows between the two countries.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Berdegue’s goal is to “return with an agreement on the border opening” after talks with USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, who has publicly criticized Mexico’s handling of the outbreak. Mexico recently confirmed its first screwworm cases in Nuevo León, near the U.S. border, but insists the infections were contained.
The outbreak comes as President Donald Trump’s administration presses domestic ranchers to lower beef prices and expand the U.S. cattle herd. The White House also announced Thursday that Trump will quadruple low-tariff imports of Argentine beef, further heightening tensions with U.S. cattle producers already wary of new competition.
