10/12/05 New Mexican tariffs on US apples, Pt.1

10/12/05 New Mexican tariffs on US apples, Pt.1

U.S. apple sales to Mexico had picked up this summer after the Mexican Government in May temporarily dropped forty seven per cent anti-dumping tariffs on U.S. Red and Golden Delicious. The reprieve was given after a Mexican court ruled the government's investigation had irregularities, and that a new investigation was to take place. However, Jim Archer of Northwest Fruit Exporters said that left shippers in the Northwest in a tough position. ARCHER: Unfortunately, they started the clock back in the March of 1997 period, which left many of the exporters up here without complete records of nine years ago to base a new response on. The re-investigation has resulted in the Mexican government last month again placing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. Red and Golden Delicious. ARCHER: And at that point the Ministry of Economia set a new preliminary duty rate of forty-four point six per cent. So it was a very modest gain of two percentage points for the majority of the industry. But the problem is that the rate did not apply to every fruit packer that filed the questionnaire. Some were given a break, with one company given a zero per cent tariff. Needless to say Archer and others in the apple industry do not like the discrepancy. However, the U.S. apple industry has a path of recourse that could reverse the current round of tariffs. More on that in our next program.
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