04/07/05 The hang up with Mexico, Part two

Mexican apple growers this past February successfully convinced a court there to order an injunction keeping an over forty-six per cent tariff on U.S. Red and Golden Delicious apples in place. But the ruling actually set off a legal quagmire in U.S. efforts to remove those tariffs. Bill Bryant is a noted international trade attorney who helped negotiate the deal that would lift the tariffs off. He says two different courts in Mexico have ruled on the case. BRYANT: The Ninth District Court has ruled that mistakes were made when the original investigation was being conducted in 1997. Initially, that court had decided that the agreement that was reached between the U.S industry and the Mexican government would constitute compliance with their earlier ruling and would negate the need to fix those mistakes. But the Sixteenth District Court ruled the agreement could possibly be unconstitutional under Mexican law. BRYANT: At the same time, the Ninth Court reversed itself and said "no, the negotiated agreement will not satisfy our concern over mistakes that were made several years before, and that what you need to do is restart the investigation at the point where mistakes were made&1997. So what does this all mean to the U.S. apple industry? More in our next program.