Mexico's Agriculture Chief Meets With US Officials as Tomato Trade Dispute Looms

Epoch Times

07-05-2025

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
Though Berdegué 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
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
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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
Mexico, which produces over 3 million metric tons of tomatoes each year and exports about half of that to the United States, hopes to renew the agreement.
In a separate post on Tuesday, Berdegué
'They also highlighted that the Mexican tomato has no possible substitute, not only because of its volume but also because of its quality,' he added.
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
Mexico also agreed to