Lawmakers Urge End of Tomato Deal

A bipartisan group of almost 60 Congressional lawmakers is calling on the Commerce Department to end the tomato suspension agreement with Mexico, charging that Mexican exporters continue to dump tomatoes into the US market.

The letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) and Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif), urges the imposition of antidumping duties on tomatoes imported from Mexico.

“Despite the good faith efforts of the U.S. Department of Commerce to enforce the 2019 Suspension Agreement, Mexican tomato exporters are using the Suspension Agreement as a cover to conduct unfair trade practices, which are destroying the domestic tomato industry,” the lawmakers wrote. “The Commerce Department has already documented over a hundred violations of the 2019 Suspension Agreement, including continued dumping. The Suspension Agreement is not working and cannot be modified to work under existing law, so antidumping duties must be imposed to sufficiently remedy ongoing injury to the domestic tomato industry.”

Imports Swell

The lawmakers noted that Mexican imports accounted for about 20 percent of the US market in 1991, but the volume of tomato imports from Mexico has increased 380 percent. “Small family operations have been hit particularly hard, and the impacts have been profoundly damaging to rural economies. After 27 years, it is clear that the loopholes in the suspension agreements being exploited by Mexican producers cannot be closed, and the domestic industry will face further material injury if the necessary actions are not taken,” the lawmakers wrote.

“Immediate termination of the 2019 Suspension Agreement and imposition of antidumping duties is necessary to stop the destruction of the American tomato industry by unfairly traded Mexican tomatoes.”