Faced with an announcement from the U.S. Department of Commerce that it would terminate a tomato anti-dumping duty suspension agreement that has been in place between Mexico and the United States since 1996, tomato growers in Mexico have asked the department to reconsider and renegotiate the agreement and have put forth proposals they believe should adequately address concerns of the department and of the Florida tomato industry.

The Fresh Produce Association of the Americas in Nogales, AZ, many of whose members handle tomatoes from Mexico, has been in the thick of the controversy, trying to persuade the commerce A two-layer pack of vine-ripe Mexican-grown tomatoes.department to reconsider and making the case that ending the agreement would be economically disruptive. But time is running out, as the agreement was scheduled to go into sunset review period Dec. 3.

"That deadline is looming out there," FPAA President Lance Jungmeyer told The Produce News Nov. 20. "If the current agreement is going to be fixed or saved, that has to be agreed upon by early December for it to really work out."

Eight days later, there had been no resolution. "They are still in the process of trying to negotiate," Mr. Jungmeyer said Nov. 28. But, "everyone on the Mexican side" as well as the Nogales distributors, "believes that renegotiating the current [agreement] is certainly a better option than to see it lapse and have the domestic industry seek any kind of relief under an anti-dumping statute."

The situation is "very much in flux," he said.

Under the current suspension agreement, a floor price has been set for tomatoes from Mexico, and signatories are not permitted to go below that price. However, not all tomato exporters are signatories.

In their proposal to the commerce department, "Mexican growers have put forth some very aggressive enforcement controls," Mr. Jungmeyer said. The most important of those is "that under this proposal, 100 percent of exporters of Mexico tomatoes would be signatories to this and would have to comply, and there would be enforcement on the Mexican side by the Mexican government and on the U.S. side by the U.S. government." Additionally, a new floor price is being considered.

"Right now, the way it is set up, growers representing 85 percent of the volume to the U.S. out of Mexico had to be signatories. That is problematic for both sides, for Mexico and Florida, because it gives so much room for some people to break the rules," he said, although "for the most part the established commercial distributors and shippers are abiding by the rules."

Distributors in Nogales are hoping that the commerce department will accept the growers' proposals, "because if the U.S. and Mexico do not come to terms on this, it is going to make it very difficult for the distributors in Nogales to maintain their import business." There will still be people selling tomatoes, but "there may not be as many," he said. "We really don't know how it will play out."

Tomatoes from Mexico are "a huge part" of the U.S. market, Mr. Jungmeyer said. "Buyers from all across the United States, from foodservice and retail, are depending on these, and the ability to move forward with contracts is important."

In a Sept. 27 press release following the Department of Commerce's notice of its intent to terminate the agreement, the FPAA stated that the decision was hasty and unwarranted. The release quoted Mr. Jungmeyer as calling it "a slap in the face to the good will showed by the Mexican growers, who were scheduled only tomorrow to have a meeting with Commerce to renegotiate terms of the agreement."