McSally seeks to protect America’s tomato industry

U.S. Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) and congressional members from her home state want the Trump administration to address the concerns of Arizona growers and others around the country in negotiating a more balanced Tomato Suspension Agreement with Mexico.

“We encourage the Administration to continue to craft agricultural trade policy that seeks to strengthen the industry nationally, not one that is calibrated around regional or seasonal interests,” the members wrote. “Therefore, we respectfully request that the Administration develop and maintain a workable suspension agreement on tomatoes from Mexico.”

Sen. McSally joined U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and other Arizona lawmakers in sending a March 1 letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross urging him to fix the current situation. They wrote that they’re “increasingly concerned over efforts from certain regional interests to curb the import of fresh tomatoes from Mexico.” 

The Tomato Suspension Agreement is between the U.S. Commerce Department and signatory producers and exporters of fresh tomatoes grown in Mexico. The most-recent agreement was entered into and became effective on March 4, 2013.  

The United States has been renegotiating the contract with Mexico since January 2018, but both have been unable to develop an acceptable revision, forcing the United States to withdraw from the agreement and allow Commerce Department authorities to investigate allegations that Mexican tomatoes are being illegally dumped into the U.S. market.

“We have heard the concerns of the American tomato producing industry and are taking action today to ensure they are protected from unfair trading practices,” Ross said in a statement last month. “The Trump administration will continue to use every tool in our toolbox to ensure trade is free, fair and reciprocal.”

Once the United States officially withdraws from the agreement on May 7, the Commerce Department will resume its long-standing antidumping investigation, according to Ross.

However, if the United States proceeds with terminating the Tomato Suspension Agreement, all imports of Mexican tomatoes would be subject to a 17.5-percent duty to be paid by American importers prior to the actual shipment of the tomatoes, in turn forcing tomato distributing companies in Arizona and around the country to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to remain in operations, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. 

“Without a Suspension Agreement, produce warehouses in Southern Arizona will face extreme hardship and potential closure,” Jungmeyer said.

Sen. McSally and her colleagues told Ross that “erecting new barriers to trade in fruits and vegetables risks hurting American consumers and the United States agriculture industry,” according to their letter.

“It also could jeopardize our trading relationship with one of the leading export destinations for American agriculture,” they wrote, citing a November 2018 study from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension’s Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics showing that Mexican tomato imports account for more than 30,000 American jobs and support a supply chain that generates almost $3 billion in U.S. gross domestic product. 

“Terminating the agreement without the certainty provided by a revised suspension agreement would create economic uncertainty throughout the supply chain and risk retaliation to our agriculture industry,” according to the lawmakers.