The United States has moved to withdraw from a trade agreement that’s crucial to Mexico’s tomato exports.
Mexico’s Agriculture Minister Julio Berdegué said he had a “very pleasant and productive” meeting in Washington with his U.S. counterpart, Brooke Rollins, as he works to defend a trade pact that has supported the country’s tomato exports for nearly three decades.
“We reached agreements that will be beneficial to both countries, including strengthening mechanisms for dialogue and mutual consultation to address ongoing and emerging issues,” he
wrote on May 6 on social media platform X.
Though he did not disclose more details about his meetings with Collins, Berdegué also met with Mexican tomato producers—who traveled to Washington to lobby for the longstanding tomato trade agreement—and with 27 representatives from more than two dozen U.S. companies involved in importing, transporting, processing, and distributing Mexican tomatoes.
The meetings came as the United States moved to
withdraw from the Tomato Suspension Agreement, which sets a minimum price for fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico in exchange for exemption from anti-dumping duties. The agreement was first established in 1996 and has since been renewed multiple times, most recently in October 2019. That version is set to expire on July 14, following a mandatory 90-day notice period.
The Commerce Department announced in April that it intends to terminate the agreement, arguing it has failed to protect U.S. tomato producers from unfairly priced Mexican imports. If the withdrawal proceeds, most imports of tomatoes from Mexico will face anti-dumping duties of 20.91 percent.
In November 2019, the U.S. International Trade Commission
concluded an anti-dumping investigation and ruled that imported Mexican tomatoes threaten the U.S. tomato industry. Such a ruling would typically result in punitive duties, but since the investigation was completed after the signing of a new suspension agreement, duties have remained suspended.
In the years that followed, industry groups and lawmakers—including bipartisan delegations to Congress from California and Florida, the nation’s top two tomato-producing states—repeatedly urged the Commerce Department to either withdraw from the agreement or exempt certain categories of Mexican-grown tomatoes from its provisions.
“Since the first tomato suspension agreement was enacted in 1996, hundreds of U.S. tomato growers across the country have been forced out of business,” a coalition of members of Congress said in a 2019
petition. “The industry will continue to shrink if the status quo is maintained.”
Mexico, which produces over 3 million metric tons of tomatoes each year and exports about half to the United States, hopes to renew the agreement.
In a separate post on May 6, Berdegué
said U.S. importers—who would be responsible for paying anti-dumping duties if the agreement is not renewed—warned that termination would raise prices for American consumers and put at risk 50,000 U.S. jobs tied to the tomato value chain.
“They also highlighted that the Mexican tomato has no possible substitute, not only because of its volume but also because of its quality,” he stated.
Mexico has recently taken steps to ease tensions on other agricultural fronts, including the handling of the New World screwworm, a parasitic fly that infests and feeds on the flesh of living animals and, in rare cases, humans.
After the United States threatened to suspend cattle imports from Mexico, the two sides
reached a deal to boost cooperation on pest control. Rollins announced on April 30 that Mexico agreed to waive flight restrictions for planes that release sterilized flies to suppress the pest population before it reaches the U.S.–Mexican border.
Mexico also agreed to
immediate water deliveries to Texas farmers to address its shortfall under a longstanding water-sharing treaty. The move followed public criticism from President Donald Trump, who accused Mexico of stealing water from Texas and warned of “escalating consequences,” including tariffs or sanctions, unless the water debt was repaid.
