Mexican Tomato Growers Propose Increasing Prices

Mexican tomato growers, faced with the possibility of renewed antidumping tariffs (see 1902070024), have proposed raising prices on their exports to the U.S. by as much as 34 percent, and eliminating price differentials between tomatoes grown in the winter and the summer.

The proposal, submitted to the Commerce Department April 8, also contains many enforcement planks, though Mexican growers say there have been no violations of the existing suspension agreement. Among those planks are:

• Offering on-site verifications by independent auditors, as well as video verifications
• Making exports of Mexican tomatoes under a different signatory number other than one's own a violation of the agreement
• New penalties for intentional violations of the agreement by Mexican growers or their selling agents.

"We have developed proposals on both sides of the border focusing on enforcing the arrival condition of the first sale, which is what is covered by the antidumping law. We can't, of course, agree to anything that goes beyond the reach of U.S. law," said Rosario Beltran of Confederacion de Asociaciones Agrícolas del Estado de Sinaloa, A.C.

Florida tomato growers, who say their industry has been decimated by unfair Mexican competition, reacted positively to the proposal because "it contains some useful suggestions on how to prevent circumvention of the suspension agreement by Mexican producers." They say they will submit comments on both the Mexican proposal and the Commerce Department's October 2018 proposal on revising the suspension agreement (see background information).