Tomato war fought by Mexican and U.S. growers

Thursday, October 18, 2012 - 13:27 Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images A woman picks tomatoes in a supermarket in Mexico City. Florida tomato farmers are pushing the Obama administration to end a 16-year old tomato import agreement with Mexico. Critics smell election-year pandering and worry about Mexican retaliation against other U.S. industries. The U.S. could be on the brink of a new trade war. And it all comes down to tomatoes. Florida farmers have used their election year clout to press the Obama administration to revise a 16-year-old agreement with Mexico over the price of imported tomatoes. But the farmers avoid bellicose rhetoric. “There is no war involved here. There is simply an issue of trying to return to a free and unmanaged trade environment,” says Reggie Brown, executive vice-president of the Florida Growers Exchange, a trade association. What’s seen as fairness for American farmers is interpreted as just the opposite by growers across the border. The dispute centers around ...

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