| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just two days before her scheduled
departure, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman on Thursday
canceled a trip to Mexico because of a domestic dispute in
Mexico involving sugar workers, a USDA official said.
Mexican Agriculture Secretary Javier Usabiaga called
Veneman Thursday and asked her to postpone this weekend's
visit because of civil unrest involving his country's sugar
industry workers, the USDA official said.
Veneman had been set to depart Saturday night for meetings
Sunday and Monday with Usabiaga.
Mexican sugar workers are owed approximately $460 million
in back pay for sugar cane cut in the 2000/01 harvest. Some of
those workers were demonstrating in the streets of Mexico City
earlier this week.
Thursday the Mexican government announced the creation of a
government fund to help sugar mill owners repay growers' debts
accrued since December.
The USDA official, who asked not to be identified, stressed
that Veneman's trip was not canceled because of any
agriculture trade tensions between the United States and
Mexico.
But the two countries have been engaging in heated disputes
over the amount of sugar Mexico should be allowed to ship to
the United States and the level of U.S. shipments of
high-fructose corn syrup to Mexico.
Veneman's trip was being billed as a get-acquainted meeting
with Usabiaga and an opportunity for her to discuss a range of
agriculture-related issues with her Mexican counterpart. |