The Mexican government said it will begin talks with the U.S. to renew a bilateral agreement on Mexico’s tomato exports. The U.S. government announced it is pulling out of the agreement. The U.S. pullout would mean a 21 percent tariff will be put in place on Mexican tomato imports on July 14. Reuters reported the U.S. Commerce Department says the agreement hasn’t protected domestic tomato growers in the U.S. market.
The agreement regulates tomato imports from Mexico into the U.S., and the goal was to help U.S. producers compete on a level playing field. The agreement went into effect in 1996 and was renewed in 2019 to stave off an anti-dumping investigation and end a tariff dispute. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum says that Mexican tomatoes aren’t replaceable by any other country’s exports in terms of quality or quantity. She also says that, without the pact, U.S. consumers would pay more for their tomatoes.
Read more about the U.S. Commerce Department decision in the story below:
Commerce Department to Reinstate Tariffs on Mexican Tomatoes
