US Imposes 17% Tariff on Mexican Tomatoes After Withdrawing from Agreement

• The Trump administration announced on Monday a duty of about 17% on fresh tomatoes from Mexico, which account for two-thirds of the tomatoes eaten in the U.S., and the end of an export deal between the two countries.
• The Commerce Department said the U.S. was withdrawing from a 2019 agreement with Mexico that suspended an antidumping duty investigation on Mexican tomatoes, whose exports to the U.S. are valued at $3 billion a year.
• The move came as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to negotiate comprehensive trade agreements with virtually every trading partner after the president launched a dizzying series of tariff announcements in April. The U.S. and Mexico first struck an agreement in 1996 to regulate Mexican tomato exports and address U.S. complaints of unfair competition. The pact was last renewed six years ago to avert an antidumping investigation and end a tariff dispute.
• Mexico said in April it was confident that it could renew the tomato agreement when Washington said it intended to withdraw from the deal. The 17.09% antidumping duty is set at the percentage by which exported Mexican tomatoes have been unfairly underpriced in the United States, it said.
• S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that for too long, farmers have suffered due to unfair trade practices that undercut the prices of produce such as tomatoes. Mexico's ministries of economy and agriculture said in a joint statement that the U.S. decision was "unfair" and against the interests of Mexican producers and the U.S. industry.
• Mexican tomato growers had offered proposals that were positive for the U.S., but were rejected for "political reasons," the statement added. A group of five Mexican agriculture associations, including from Baja California and Sinaloa states, said they were committed to working with the Mexican government to find solutions.

(Source: Reuters)