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The Trump administration throws a 21 percent tariff on tomatoes imported from Mexico, and hangs an agreement that the president made during his first term.
Trump’s 2019 trade agreement with Mexico will be terminated within 90 days, when a 20.91 percent levy will be imposed on most tomatoes from the country, the US Department of Trade announced on Monday. The move is the latest action that President Donald Trump has taken against one of the biggest US trading partners.
“The current agreement has failed to protect US tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports,” the department wrote in the release. “This action will enable our tomato growers to compete fairly on the market.”
The new levy comes into effect on July 14.
The move comes six years after Trump’s earlier agreement with tomato growers in Mexico, where the growing season is significantly longer than in America, which prevents it from being a 25 percent rate to come into effect.
The Department of Trade said at the time that the US imported about $ 2 billion worth of tomatoes from Mexico each year.
The department wrote in September 2019: “The suspension agreement eliminates the harmful effects of unfairly priced Mexican tomatoes, prevents price suppression and undermining, and eliminating significantly all dumps, while trading is allowed to 80 Mexican tomato producers and US sellers, or more with a good cause.”
The agreement was concluded after the producers in Florida requested the termination of a 2013 agreement.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said about the new tariff that she hopes the two countries can reach a new agreement, adding that the quality of the tomatoes of Mexico “cannot be replaced by no other in the world.”
“This process has happened many times, and Mexico always comes out. But if this sanction is applied, Mexican tomatoes will still be exported to the US because there is no substitute,” she said, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Mexican Agriculture Minister Julio Berdegue said in the same way: “A 90 -day window is now open. There will be a conversation with the United States. We are looking for this agreement to be renewed.”
The announcement of Monday is the youngest in Trump’s trade war with the southern neighbor of the country. The president announced in February that it would impose a 25 percent rate of the goods imported from Canada and Mexico to hold the countries “liable for their promises to stop illegal immigration and stop toxic fentanyl and other drugs in our country.”
Trump had a campaign at high food prices and promised to bring them down as soon as he obtained the White House. He said he won the election on “groceries”. Instead, he has imposed rates that will have to pay the price that consumers will have to pay for food, and lower the competition, which will also raise prices.
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