A group of Congress members filed a petition with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on September 9, requesting that USTR conduct a Section 301 investigation into “the flood of imported seasonal and perishable agricultural products from Mexico, specifically, fruits and vegetables grown with subsidized horticultural infrastructure and other forms of Mexican government support.”
The petition said the Mexican government’s “scheme to subsidize the development, operation, and expansion of an export-oriented protected seasonal and perishable agricultural industry is an unreasonable practice that constitutes export targeting” under Section 301.
The petition added that as a result of this scheme Mexico’s share of the U.S. market in several primary seasonal and perishable products has increased by 160 percent over the past 15 years while Florida’s share has fallen by 36 percent.
