Jul 11, 2019
Mexican tomato growers submit data for antidumping investigation

Three Mexican tomato grower groups said in a July 10 press release that they recently submitted data in the renewed anti-dumping investigation.

The U.S. Department of Commerce on May 7 terminated an agreement that suspended the antidumping investigation on fresh tomatoes from Mexico.

“As we have said many times, we are in favor of a new suspension agreement but it must be fair. Stopping all truckloads of perishable fruit at the border is not fair and is not legal,” said Rosario Beltran, President of the grower association CAADES. “We also expect a fair regulatory process and antidumping analysis. If not, we will go to the International Trade Commission to win this case or go to the courts if we have to. We hope reason ultimately prevails and we can have a meaningful negotiation moving ahead.”

CAADES was joined in this statement by AMHPAC, the largest grower association, along with Asociación de Productores de Hortalizas del Yaqui y Mayo and Sistema Producto Tomate.

The growers groups said in a press release their calculations “demonstrate that the dumping margins for all three growers amount to zero based on the programs used by the Commerce Department and the regulations in place in 1996, when this case was originally filed by the Florida Tomato Exchange and which is what the Commerce Department previously announced it will be using.”

U.S. politicians and industry groups including the Florida Tomato Exchange have alleged Mexico is engaging in commodity dumping that is hurting U.S. tomato growers around the country.