Growers claim Mexican tomatoes dumped in Ontario

Thursday, August 14, 2014

by SUSAN MANN

The Canadian greenhouse industry is concerned Mexican tomatoes are being dumped into the marketplace in Canada and it is keeping an eye on the situation, says an Ontario greenhouse industry spokesman.

George Gilvesy, general manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, says this spring “we saw some very aggressive pricing for a period of time that has caused us to again raise this issue with the federal government.”

Gilvesy says at times Mexican tomatoes are sent into Canada without a price on them and “the seller will sell it for what they can get for it.”

Canadian industry representatives talked to the federal government about their concerns almost a year ago. When the March 4, 2013 agreement between the United States and Mexico suspending the Americans’ antidumping investigation on fresh tomatoes from Mexico came into force, Canadian growers contacted the federal government at that time to let it know “we felt that we were at some level of vulnerability because of the Suspension Agreement. The Mexicans have to ship tomatoes into the United States at a certain price whereas they do not have the same compliance factor for Canada,” he says.

There have been previous suspension agreements between the U.S. and Mexico including the first one signed in 1996 suspending the antidumping investigation launched by American tomato growers in 1996. Updated suspension agreements were signed in 2002, 2008 and 2013. The agreement is designed to prevent price undercutting in the U.S. market. In the agreement there are four categories of tomatoes that have established reference prices “to better reflect the realities of the current tomato market,” according to a fact sheet on the agreement from the U.S. International Trade Administration.

Gilvesy says the Canadian industry will continue gathering data and information on Mexican tomato shipments being sent into the Canadian marketplace at below Canadian farmers cost of production. “We will be discussing whether we will also put forward an official complaint regarding tomato and pepper imports into Canada from Mexico,” he adds. BF