That’s one question that keeps swirling around during the final negotiations between the Trump administration and Mexico on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement.
Growers of tomatoes, strawberries and peppers in Florida and the Southeast say they’ve been hammered by cheap imports of these crops from Mexico, particularly during winter months. They’ve lobbied the Trump administration to make it easier for them to bring “anti-dumping” and “countervailing duty” cases against Mexico in an updated NAFTA agreement.
But growers on the West Coast fear such a provision would prompt Mexico to retaliate, making it harder for them to sell south of the border. Mexico is the United States’ No. 1 market for apples, pears and sweet cherries. Washington state is the nation’s No. 1 producer of all three of these fruits. California is also a major producer, and the nation’s No. 1 cultivator of tomatoes.
This month, US and Mexican negotiators are scrambling to strike a NAFTA deal, so they can bring Canada on board and meet deadlines to give Congress a required 90 day notice on any negotiated agreement. But Camuñez says “there are still a number of issues that could cause this agreement to go sideways,” including claims of unfair trading in farm goods.
Miamiherald.com explains that overall, US agriculture has benefited from NAFTA. From 1992 to 2016, US agriculture exports to Canada and Mexico grew from $8.7 billion to $38 billion.