Bicameral Bipartisan Letter Asks Administration to Push Mexico on Potato Exports
Sen. Jim Risch and Rep. Mike Simpson, both Idaho Republicans, led a bicameral, bipartisan letter asking the Biden administration to push Mexico to comply with its agreements to allow the import of fresh U.S. potatoes. The letter from 34 members of Congress, including the Senate Finance Committee's top Democrat and Republican, said Mexico says it needs additional site visits in the U.S. before restoring market access.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The Mexican Supreme Court ruled 11 months ago that U.S. fresh potatoes should be allowed, and that Mexican officials toured U.S. potato operations in Colorado "as the final step in restoring this access," Risch said March 15. He said Mexican officials told USDA that the access would be restored by early last month.
However, lawmakers wrote, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and its Mexican counterpart jointly announced Feb. 16 "that fresh table stock potato access would be substantially delayed well into 2022. That statement was made due to Mexico’s later demands for additional site visits in 2022 as a prerequisite to opening the market. Additionally, it was announced that processing potato access to Mexico would be arbitrarily limited to only two companies for 2022."
Mexico appears to be continuing to avoid its responsibilities to restore this access, the letter said. "We request that APHIS explain its decision-making process to agree to these unscientific and inconsistent demands." Risch estimated $150 million worth of exports to Mexico if access were restored.