Mexico's Potato Ban Delay

Mexico's Potato Ban Delay

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I’m Bob Larson. The Mexican Supreme Court postponed yesterday’s vote on overturning Mexico’s ban on the import of U.S. fresh potatoes.

National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles says we’re doing everything we can to encourage passage whenever the vote is …

QUARLES … “And I think the U.S. government is going to be very engaged with our counterparts in making sure that this ruling gets to the finish line in the manner that we need it to arrive at.”

Quarles says we just need three votes …

QUARLES … “A majority vote is clearly an emphatic precedence setting vote. All you need is three. We would love to have a unanimous decision and really just make it incredibly clear that this unfortunate legal saga that we’ve had to go down over these past few years, the Supreme Court, to a, every single justice agreed that it really had no merit and the legal challenges should have had no effect.”

And, Quarles says it’s not JUST about potatoes …

QUARLES … “If the court ruled against the U.S. position and ruled in favor of the Mexican potato industry, every agricultural import could be subject to challenge by protectionist forces within the country.”

During yesterday’s hearing, the justice who authored the draft ruling overturning the ban asked the court to put off the vote until next week at the earliest.

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