FTE: Fresh Produce Association of the Americas resorts to scaremongering over Mexican tomato agreement

Published Jul 16, 2021

Tridge summary

The Florida Tomato Exchange (FTE) has refuted claims by the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas (FPAA) that it is proposing changes to the Tomato Suspension Agreement. The FTE is instead requesting the Commerce Department to enforce the agreement by rejecting the Mexican tomato industry's efforts to alter the reference price provisions. The FTE believes that the Commerce Department's 2019 Agreement terms, which allow all Mexican expenses to be included in the Reference Price, are essential for strong enforcement. The FTE also clarified that the Tomato Suspension Agreement only applies to imported tomatoes from Mexico and does not impact other produce industry segments.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Maitland, FL, July 15, 2021 – Despite erroneous claims by the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas BB #:144354, the Florida Tomato Exchange BB #:162441 hasn’t proposed any changes to the Tomato Suspension Agreement.The FTE is only asking the Commerce Department to enforce the agreement by rejecting the Mexican tomato industry’s efforts to rewrite a key part of the reference price provisions by using terms from the terminated 2009 and 2013 agreements.The new reference price terms were specifically included by Commerce in the 2019 Agreement to provide for stronger enforcement.The 2019 Agreement – in conformity with the Antidumping statute – allows all expenses incurred in Mexico to be included in the Reference Price but requires that all expenses incurred on the U.S. side of the border to be added on to the reference price.If the Mexican industry is unhappy with this new language, they shouldn’t have signed the agreement in 2019. Indeed, they are free to leave the agreement ...

Source: Producebluebook