Tomato suspension case debated at Mexico convention

From The Packer: GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Mexico’s greenhouse tomato producers are working for peace but preparing for war.

While Mexican tomato industry representatives continue working with commerce officials to avoid a possible trade war resulting from Florida growers’ call to end the tomato suspension agreement, members of AMHPAC approved an assessment based a grower’s number of hectares to raise funds for legal fees in the case.

The vote took place Aug. 22 on the opening day of the annual convention of AMHPAC, the Mexican association of protected horticulture.

Eric Viramontes, AMHPAC director general and chief executive officer, said the marketplace has room for growers from all regions and that Florida’s effort distracted from a shared interest in growing U.S. tomato consumption.

“We would love not to fight,” Viramontes said Aug. 24.

He said scuttling the agreement could bring retaliatory action from Mexico.

In 2009, Mexico slapped retaliatory duties on U.S. shipments of apples, cherries, grapes, pears and other items after the Obama administration ended a pilot program for Mexican trucks in the U.S. The situation was resolved and tariffs scaled back in 2011.   

Citing unfair trade practices, the Maitland-based Florida Tomato Exchange filed documents in late June with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission requesting withdrawal from the 1996 suspension agreement, an anti-dumping duty petition regulating a floor price for Mexican imports.

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