Hastings on Mexico Tariffs

Hastings on Mexico Tariffs. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The Mexican tariffs are finally a thing of the past and there are a lot ag producers in the northwest breathing a sigh of relief. That also includes Washington Congressman Doc Hastings.

HASTINGS: That’s very good news and of course it should have happened in the first place but of course it was just really raw political power nearly 3 years ago by the teamsters union that unilaterally negated a portion of the NAFTA Treaty and the tariffs have caused some problems with our commodities that we ship to Mexico but now that they are all off I think that’s good news and we can compete on a level playing field and that’s good news.

Even though this is a done deal the Teamsters are not letting go easily.

HASTINGS: They have made attempts going through the legislative process to reinsert that. We have been successful in the House to beat that back and I hope that we will be successful in the Senate but their issue won’t go away and we prevailed on this and I think we’ll continue prevailing.

Hastings is very happy that ag producers can get on with doing what they do without the extra tariffs.

HASTINGS: There were 99 different commodities that were effected. Manufactured commodities and agricultural commodities but it certainly had a big impact on our tree fruit industry and our potato industry. But now that those tariffs are gone we can now compete on a level playing field. Mexico has always been our largest or second largest trading partner depending on what the commodity is as with Canada so it’s important to have a level playing field with our close trading partners.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.