The Trump administration plans to withdraw from a trade agreement that lets Mexico export tomatoes to the U.S. duty-free, the Commerce Department said.
Starting July 14, tomatoes from south of the border will be tariffed at 20.91%.
“The current agreement has failed to protect U.S. tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports, as Commerce has been flooded with comments from them urging its termination. This action will allow U.S. tomato growers to compete fairly in the marketplace,” the department said in a news release Monday.
Tomatoes sold in the U.S. from Mexico are controlled by the Department of Commerce through the suspension agreement, which sets minimum pricing and regulates sales between growers and importers.
Mexican tomato producers signed an agreement with President Donald Trump’s first administration in 2019 to end a tariff dispute.
As part of the 2019 agreement, Mexico-based growers agreed not to sell tomatoes below a reference price, a seasonably adjusted floor price at which Mexican tomatoes can’t fall underneath and still be exported to the U.S.
Mexico exports about 56% of the tomatoes it produces, with 99% of exports destined for the U.S., according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, reported Milenio.
In 2023, the U.S. market accounted for $2.7 billion worth of tomato exports from Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Laredo customs district in South Texas — which includes Laredo’s World Trade Bridge and the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge in Pharr — accounts for the majority of tomato imports from Mexico, followed by the border crossing in Nogales, Arizona.
Related: US mulls terminating tomato trade agreement with Mexico
Officials for the Florida Tomato Exchange (FTE) said they support the tariffs on Mexican-grown tomatoes.
Florida growers have been pushing for more restrictions on Mexican-grown tomatoes for decades. Since 1996, the U.S. and Mexico have negotiated five separate agreements regarding tomato imports.
In June 2023, the FTE requested that the federal government terminate the tomato agreement, alleging that it has “failed to stop unfairly traded Mexican tomatoes from destroying the U.S. tomato industry,” it said in a news release.
“This is a major victory for American agriculture,” Robert Guenther, FTE executive vice president, said in a news release on Monday. “For decades, American tomato farmers have suffered from unfair trade practices by Mexican tomato exporters. Terminating this agreement and enforcing U.S. trade laws is the only way to finally give domestic growers the relief they’ve long deserved.”
