Mexico set minimum prices for fresh tomato exports to the U.S., seeking to regain full access to the market after the Trump administration imposed an anti-dumping duty.

Setting the floor avoids generating “a distortion in the prices” of tomato exports, the Mexican government said in a decree published in the federal gazette late August 8. U.S. growers have accused Mexican counterparts of selling at unfairly low prices, and the U.S. withdrew this year from a trade agreement regulating the exports.

While the U.S. Commerce Department announced the anti-dumping duty of more than 17% in July, President Donald Trump delayed a broad tariff hike for 90 days to create space for a trade deal with Mexico. 

“The Mexican government is trying to help growers avoid an increase in anti-dumping duties in the future,” said Georgina Felix, director of operations at the Arizona-based Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. 

Washington withdrew in July from a 2019 agreement that suspended investigations into whether Mexico was dumping tomatoes on the American market, ending the mandatory price floor for tomato imports at their first point of sale in the U.S.

The minimums imply a price jump of almost 40% for round “bola” tomatoes and 26% for the cherry and grape varieties, even greater than the duty imposed by the U.S., Juan Carlos Anaya, general director of the Agricultural Markets Consulting Group in Mexico City, told Imagen Radio. 

Skip Hulett, chief legal officer for U.S. tomato importer NatureSweet Ltd., said the company is watching “how this may impact the industry and the overall trading relationship.” 

The company last month warned that it would have to raise prices almost 10% if the decades-long deal with Mexico expires.