Trade war could have hurt many US businesses
The United States and Mexico have reached a tentative agreement on cross-border trade in tomatoes, narrowly averting a trade war that threatened to engulf a broad swath of US businesses. The agreement, reached late Saturday, raises the minimum price at which Mexican tomatoes can be sold in the United States, aims to strengthen compliance and enforcement, and increases the types of tomatoes governed by the bilateral pact to four from one.
The draft agreement raises reference prices substantially, in some cases more than double the current reference price for certain products, and accounts for changes that have occurred in the tomato market since the signing of the original agreement, Francisco Sanchez, undersecretary of commerce for international trade, said in a statement.
The agreement will be open for public comment until Feb. 11. The Commerce Department estimated it would go into effect March 4. Estimates are that nearly one of every two tomatoes eaten in the United States comes from Mexico.
The Mexicans enlisted roughly 370 US businesses, ranging from retailers to various meat and vegetable producers, to argue their cause. Those businesses feared a bitter trade war like the one the Mexicans waged over trucking, which imposed stiff tariffs on US goods headed south.
http://bostonglobe.com/business/2013/02/04/mexico-settle-potential-trade-war-over-tomatoes/V4UnHU7wWFuVc0FIybgxVL/story.html
Sounds like Mexico agreed to the US position that the 'base price' of tomatos will be raised by about 50%.