Just three weeks after the Mexican government implemented its final rule to allow U.S. fresh potatoes into larger cities throughout all of Mexico, as part of a bilateral agreement that facilitates trade in fresh potatoes between the two countries," Mexico has backpedaled and said "no" to U.S. potatoes.

The Produce News has obtained a copy of an announcement issued June 9 by SAGARPA, the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, stating that pursuant to a mandate from the Seventh District Court in the State of Sinaloa, fresh potato imports from the United States beyond a zone along the northern border would be provisionally, or temporarily, suspended.

The importation suspension will remain in effect pending a final court hearing on the matter. The announcement did not specify when that hearing might be held.

The announcement stated that under the provisional suspension, things would remain as they were before the bilateral agreement became effective. That would seem to mean that exporting potatoes to cities within 26 kilometers of the U.S. Mexican border would still be permissible as has been the case for the past 10 years.

According to Mark Szymanski, director of public relations for the National Potato Council in Washington, DC, "the Mexican potato growers association called CONPAPA filed a suit against their Ministry of Agriculture in Mexico [SAGARPA] to block the agreement" that allows for the bilateral trade in potatoes with the United States.

"We haven't seen their claims or their filing at all, so we don't have a time frame for when the courts might take up the suit," Szymanski said June 10

The announcement from SAGARPA came just 21 days after NPC and the United States Potato Board had issued a joint press release announcing that Mexico had opened its doors to U.S. potatoes to markets beyond the 26-kilometer limit that had been in place for a decade.

The announced opening of the market May 19 came "after years of hard work by the U.S. potato industry, USDA, and USTR," John Keeling, NPC executive vice president and chief executive officer, had said in a written statement to The Produce News May 21. He had expected "the full opening of the Mexican potato market to U.S.-grown spuds [to] create tremendous opportunities for all the major growing areas."

Frank Muir, president of the Idaho Potato Commission, had told The Produce News May 21, that he saw the agreement as "a very monumental period in history between the two countries" with significance beyond the potato industry.

But CONPAPA and a Mexican court in the state of Sonora took a different view.

"After 10 years of working towards" the opening of the market "and you think you've got it," finding out that it's not happening after all is a disappointment, said Seth Pemsler, vice president of retail and international at the Idaho Potato Commission. "But I guess it's part of international trade."

Szymanski said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service has confirmed "all border crossing points are closed" to potatoes.

As a result of that closure, "to keep produce from waiting in trucks, APHIS has stopped issuing phytos [phytosanitary certificates]" for potatoes going to Mexico "until the border points are reopened," he said. "That is really all the information we have at this point."

Commenting on the on-again-off-again nature of the market access agreement with Mexico, Szymanski said, "I know we're not the first, and we won't be the last, to have that issue."

A customs broker and freight forwarder who is familiar with the matter informed The Produce News the afternoon of June 10 that the a group of Mexican producers had filed a suit "against the bilateral agreement" May 20, "the very first day" after the agreement took effect. He said the Mexican Court in the State of Sinaloa sustained the claim June 2. It appears that SAGARPA was notified of the court's ruling June 9, and "once served, they suspended all imports under the agreement," he said. "SAGARPA had no other option but to follow the court's instruction."

The litigants contended that "the agreement is unconstitutional, specifically against the Mexican Constitution Articles 1, 4, 14, 16, 27, 39, 40, 41 and 133," he said.

"As Freight Forwarders and Customs Brokers, we were surprised too." There were shipments at the border "in the middle of inspection process" when the announcement was made, "and this happened all along the U.S.-Mexico border."