MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico’s Economy Department says U.S. consumers could pay 38% to 70% more for tomatoes after the U.S. Commerce Department announced it would re-impose anti-dumping duties on Mexican imports.
The Mexican agency says the country exports about $2 billion in tomatoes to the United States and supplies about half the tomatoes the U.S. consumes annually.
It said Tuesday that many small- and medium-sized Mexican tomato exporters won’t be able to pay the deposits required to export.
The deposits required to comply with the 17.5% tariff would amount to about $350 million, money that many Mexican producers don’t have.
In March the Commerce Department announced it was ending a 2013 suspension agreement in which Mexican growers promised to sell at fair prices, and that it would reinstate the 1996 tariffs.
