Mexico published the draft milk powder standard PROY-NOM-181-SCFI/SAGARPA-2017 in its Diario Oficial on February 1, 2018 for a 60-day comment period. The WTO notification G/TBT/N/MEX/390 was subsequently issued on February 6. In the Diario Oficial, there is a 60-day comment period, so comments are due April 2, 2018. The WTO notification lists a 30-day comment period, with comments due March 2, 2018. Until USDEC can get clarification on whether there is a typo in the comment deadline in the WTO notification, we need to assume that comments will only be accepted until March 2.  An unofficial translation of the draft standard is available here. The announcement of the draft standard for public comment begins the period in which Mexico's Ministry of Economy, General Directorate of Standards (DGN), together with Mexico's Ministry of Agriculture, Directorate of Food Standards, will accept comments on the content of the draft standard and its expected economic impact. 

USDEC will be submitting comments directly to Mexico's government on the draft yogurt standard, and to USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) so that our comments may be considered for incorporation into the U.S. government comments. Click here to see USDEC's comments on the draft standard. The analysis contains 4 columns, from left to right:

• Far left, black heading: Draft Mexican yogurt standard text in English
• 2^nd column, green font: USDEC observations, including a comparison to the current yogurt standard
• 3^rd column, blue font: USDEC's comments on the draft standard
• Far right, purple font: Blank space for members to respond to USDEC's proposed comments and provide your own 

If companies want to add additional comments to USDEC's comments to be submitted broadly for the industry, send them to Sandra Benson by Monday, February 26. 

To bolster the case for change to certain points in the draft standard, USDEC suggests that all interested U.S. exporters and Mexican also importers submit comments. All commenters should keep in mind, however, that Mexico is expected to publish all comments received and their response to these comments in the Diario Oficial, including the name of the organization that submitted the comments. We urge discretion with any information that may be considered proprietary.

U.S. companies should submit comments in English and Spanish to the U.S. TBT Enquiry Point at usatbtep@nist.gov at least three working days prior to the comment deadline. Each country's Enquiry Point is authorized to accept commenting activity from other Enquiry Points and may not acknowledge submissions from outside sources. If any USDEC members would like assistance with the translation of the comments into Spanish, send the comments to Sandra Benson at sbenson@usdec.org by Monday, February 26. Mexican importers may submit directly to the Mexican government as indicated in the WTO notification - daniel.gonzalezs@economia.gob.mx, rebeca.rodriguez@economia.gob.mx juan.linares@sagarpa.gob.mx.

Please contact Sandra Benson at sbenson@usdec.org with questions on any of the above points.