Trump administration to slap Mexican tomatoes with 21% ‘antidumping responsibility’ throughout peak season

Most tomatoes imported from Mexico shall be hit with a 21% tariff this summer time in an effort to “defend” US growers, the Trump administration introduced Monday. 

The new payment shall be applied on July 14, close to the beginning of peak tomato season, and when the Division of Commerce intends to terminate a 2019 commerce settlement with Mexico on the crimson fruit. 

“The present settlement has failed to guard US tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports,” learn a assertion launched by the Division of Commerce, noting that the company has been “flooded with feedback” urging the federal government to withdraw from the settlement struck throughout President Trump’s first time period. 

“This motion will enable U.S. tomato growers to compete pretty within the market,” the division added. 

“With the termination of this settlement, Commerce will institute an antidumping responsibility order on July 14, 2025, leading to duties of 20.91% on most imports of tomatoes from Mexico,” the assertion continued. 

The US imported $2.7 billion value of tomatoes from Mexico in 2023, making it the highest tomato export marketplace for Mexico. 

The 2019 take care of Mexico, which averted tariffs on the commodity, established minimal pricing requirements on Mexican tomatoes and included a mechanism to examine for and bar low-quality fruit from coming into the US market.

The settlement the Trump administration plans to withdraw from applies to all recent and chilled tomatoes and excludes tomatoes for processing.

Michael R. Pressure, the director of financial coverage research and a senior fellow on the conservative American Enterprise Institute assume tank, argued that the “astonishing” coverage will drive up tomato costs within the US. 

“It’s astonishing that the Trump administration is deliberately making an attempt to make tomatoes dearer,” Pressure wrote on X. “President Trump received the 2024 election largely as a result of groceries had been costly.” 

The tomato responsibility follows the Trump administration slapping 25% across-the-board tariffs towards Mexico in an effort to get the US neighbor to clamp down on unlawful immigration and drug smuggling. 

The tariff excludes imports topic to the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA) that Trump negotiated throughout his first time period.