Senator Reuben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has raised alarms regarding the Trump administration’s plan to impose a nearly 21% tariff on the majority of Mexican tomatoes entering the country by retracting from the 2019 trade agreement, cautioning that this will lead to higher prices at supermarkets and reduced choices.
Gallego asserted that the 2019 tomato suspension agreement established a “just price for sales” of tomatoes imported from Mexico for almost three decades, enabling consumers to “access fresh tomatoes at affordable and consistent prices all year.”
The Arizona Senator noted that as of April this year, various departments managing the agreement discovered that over 99.99% of tomato shipments from Mexico complied with the 2019 arrangement.
“This agreement is particularly essential to satisfy the rising demand for tomatoes and to supplement domestic supply during the winter months. The result of ending this agreement is that American households will face higher prices, fewer selections in grocery stores, and reduced American jobs.
“As Mexican producers experience a decrease in demand in the US, they may choose to cultivate more lucrative crops, restricting the supply of tomatoes, diminishing the variety available to American consumers in stores, and potentially causing shortages,” the Democrat added.
Oka contacted the Commerce Department for a response.
The Commerce Department’s initiative to impose 21% tariffs on most tomatoes imported from Mexico, coinciding with the US’s planned exit from its 2019 trade agreement with Mexico, is set to take effect on July 14th.
“This action will enable tomato producers to compete fairly within the marketplace,” the division remarked on Monday.
President Trump’s administration established an agreement with Mexican tomato growers in 2019 and proposed tariffs on these products. The agreement contains various regulations, including inspections to prevent the importation of low-quality tomatoes into the US.
Trump threatened to back out of the deal following complaints from US tomato growers that Mexico was suppressing crop prices. In 2023, Mexico imported tomatoes valued at $2.7 billion.
In a letter, Gallego stated that the agreement is crucial for the Arizona border community, and by withdrawing from it, the administration “jeopardizes these well-paying jobs.”
The Arizona Senator expressed his support for bolstering the domestic agriculture sector and ensuring that U.S. farmers are continually safeguarded, but he stressed that trade policies must be “reasonable.”
“The United States lacks the climate to produce many of the tomato varieties grown in Mexico sufficiently to meet consumer demand throughout the year,” Gallego wrote in a letter to Lutonic. “Importing tomatoes from Mexico also acts as a vital cushion to safeguard families from significant price swings and shortages when the U.S. market cannot supply tomatoes.”
