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Mexican Growers Respond to Florida Tomato Dispute
USAgNet - 10/17/2019

Associations representing almost 100 percent of Mexican tomato growers issued the following statement in response to the decision by the Florida Tomato Exchange to continue litigating the Tomato Suspension Agreement instead of honoring the agreement hammered out between the Mexican growers and the U.S. Commerce Department a little more than a month ago:

We are surprised by the announcement that the FTE is seeking a continuation of the antidumping investigation that could void the agreement recently reached with the Commerce Department after many months of negotiations. Its announcement of its intent to do so is misleading and mischaracterizes recent events.

The Mexican tomato industry negotiated its agreement with the Commerce Department in good faith and has every intention of abiding with that agreement throughout its term. So long as the agreement is administered in good faith and in accordance with its terms, the Mexican industry has no intention of ever withdrawing. The October 3 letter the Mexican industry filed with the Commerce Department did not signal an intent either to challenge that agreement in court or to renegotiate the agreement.

The letter simply corrected the characterization of data and certain unfounded allegations put on the record after the agreement was signed. And the growers have not challenged the agreement in court or asked to renegotiate it, nor have they stated that they plan to walk away from the agreement. The growers have every right to challenge incorrect misleading statements put on the record of the proceeding by other parties.

"We intend to abide by this agreement we negotiated with the Trump Administration," said Mr. Guillermo Jimenez, President of AMHPAC, Mexico's largest growers' association.

At the same time, if the FTE insists on continuing the investigation and taking the matter to the ITC, the Mexican industry is ready to do so and confident of prevailing. As Mr. Rosario Beltran of the CAADES association said: "The data show clearly that U.S. producers are not injured or threatened with injury by imports from Mexico.

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