US tariff hike on Mexican tomatoes is choking Mexico's tomato sector

The decision of the US Department of Commerce to increase tariffs on tomatoes from Mexico is suffocating producers.

On May 7, export tariffs on tomatoes increased to 17.5% after the US administration decided to eliminate the agreement to suspend the anti-dumping investigation.

The Agricultural Council of Baja California has estimated that this measure will cost Mexican tomato exporters more than 350 million dollars in the remainder of the current year

Salvador Garcia Valdez, the president of the Council, said this situation had begun to impact the sector with loss of jobs, fall of contracts with US companies, and a 30 to 50% decrease in exports.

The tomato industry generates 400 thousand direct jobs, 50 percent of which are small and medium producers who are unable to cope with this heavy financial burden. The representatives of the industry assured that this scenario could bankrupt Mexican companies, lower domestic production, and even increase tomato prices for the final consumer in the medium term.

Despite working hard with Jesus Seade, the undersecretary for North America of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), to reach a conclusive agreement with the US Department of Commerce, the US still hasn't given any answer, even after Mexican producers yielded in to the petitions of Florida producers.

On May 22, they presented a new proposal to the US Department of Commerce to reach an agreement to cover tomato imports, which included new reference prices with increases of up to 180 percent for an extended category of tomatoes.

Source:  Notimex