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Tomato growers hope new rules will bring relief

The latest agreement between the U.S. and Mexico should provide American tomato growers with better footing in the marketplace.

Mexico’s tomato industry has agreed to new antidumping suspension provisions which include better border enforcement, increasing floor prices, and monitoring imports while the U.S. will drop a 17.5 percent tariff.

“When consumption of a product, like tomatoes, has went from 12 pounds per capita to 20 pounds per capita in the last 25 years and the amount of production in the U.S. has declined by 60 percent—you know something is unfair.”         

Fourth-generation Michigan farmer Fred Leitz was one of six growers to testify before the International Trade Commission early this year about the dumping.  He tells Brownfield the suspension agreement is a step in the right direction but after 23 years of Mexico destroying the U.S. market, he’d rather fight for a final ruling.

“As a grower, I’m really kind of mad that we didn’t just go and have this case adjudicated to come to some kind of conclusion because it’s still a false market.”    

Leitz says American growers simply can’t complete with Mexican labor costs. “Their labor costs in Mexico are $9.21 a day for a 10-hour day, I pay $16.22 an hour.”

He says Mexico signed the deal last minute afraid the U.S. would win an anti-dumping suit and growers will be now watching Mexico to make sure they don’t circumvent it.

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says protecting the nation’s tomato growers is another example of President Trump’s commitment to ensuring farmers can succeed domestically and internationally.  He says the U.S. and Mexico have a mutually dependent relationship and coming to a compromise on tomatoes allows them to refocus efforts toward passing the USMCA.

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