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‘Florida growers say Trump's NAFTA substitute won't halt Mexico's advantages’
Born in 1970, Jaime Weisinger, director of community relations for Lipman Family Farms, recalls growing up around Immokalee. “Back then there were over 200 farms. In the '90s that number was reduced to 30 or 40. Now there are about three of us,” Weisinger said.
NAFTA, which made it easier for Mexico to sell tomatoes and other crops in the U.S., was largely to blame, according to Weisinger and others in the industry.
Last week President Donald Trump heralded the end of NAFTA, promising instead a new agreement with Mexico. But unless that agreement includes provisions specifically to address the concerns of Florida farmers — and as it stands now, it doesn’t — it won’t revive agriculture here, they say.
“This is not the outcome we have worked for,” said Mike Stuart, president of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association. As the name implies, NAFTA allows free trade across the borders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It might have benefited farmers in the Midwest who grow wheat and soybeans, crops exported to Mexico.
But Mexico’s growing season parallels Florida’s, and its climate favors the same crops grown here, including tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and blueberries. When the deal was made, it made export farming more lucrative in Mexico, leading to investments that jump-started the industry there, Weisinger said.
Mexican farmers have several advantages over those in Florida. “They pay people $7 a day,” Weisinger said, citing one. They don’t adhere to the same safety and water management rules or monitor the use of chemicals as extensively. To top it off, the Mexican government subsidizes its farmers, with more subsidies on the way, Stuart said.
“Mexico’s president-elect recently promised a significant increase in government subsidies to Mexican farmers to plant a million more hectares of fruit,” he said in a statement on the new agreement. The result is Mexican fruits and vegetables can be sold for less than Florida farmers can produce them. Farmers here argue that to make matters worse, Mexican farmers sometimes “dump” products below their own costs of production, further driving U.S. farmers out of the market.
Weisinger said Florida farmers wouldn’t mind competition, but the advantages Mexico enjoys are unfair. “It’s not a level playing field. They certainly don’t have the same regulations we do,” he said.
The decline in Florida agriculture can be seen in statistics compiled by the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association. In 2001, Florida produced about 1.6 billion pounds of tomatoes. By 2015, the number had fallen to 1 billion.
Florida pepper production in 2001 amounted to 800 million pounds. In 2015 the number was 600 million. Mexican crops have been filling the gap. Mexican tomatoes brought into the U.S. in 2001 amounted to 800 million pounds. By 2015 the figure had nearly doubled, to 1.5 billion pounds.
Mexican-grown peppers brought into the U.S. totaled 300 million pounds in 2001. In 2015 the number was 800 million. Florida strawberry and blueberry crops have increased since 2001 but not as fast as Mexican imports of those fruits.
It’s important to remember that as vital as fruit and vegetable farming is to Immokalee and other Florida towns, in the grand scheme of things it is just a small part of NAFTA, Weisinger said.
Trump’s focus has been on manufacturing jobs. Grain, meat and dairy producers in the U.S. mostly benefit from NAFTA. “Those guys don’t want to see their status quo affected,” he said.
There are elements that could be included in a new agreement with Mexico that would help local agriculture, said Lisa Lochridge, communications director for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.
For instance, under NAFTA, to bring a dumping case to the free trade commission monitoring the agreement, an entire industry has to show harm over a three-year period. That means, for example, if Mexico is dumping tomatoes to the detriment of Florida farmers, the Floridians would have to prove harm to the entire tomato industry over three years.
But California’s sizable tomato crop, coming in at a different time of year, might not have been hurt by the dumping. So on the whole, a case couldn’t be made that the industry suffered significant damage.
A new process that would allow the case to be made regionally and seasonally would help Florida farmers, Lochridge said. Such a provision is not included in the preliminary deal Trump unveiled Monday.
Stuart, president of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, said his group and others like it will continue to lobby the administration, trade negotiators and legislators for help.
“The president has promised to help safeguard farmers, and we will continue working diligently and persistently with the administration on solutions to stop Mexico’s unfair trading practices and to help our fruit and vegetable industry survive,” he said.