Deal or No Deal for Mexican Tomato Growers

8/20/2019- POLITICO

By Sabrina Rodriguez

With help from Megan Cassella and Jakob Hanke

 The Commerce Department today could announce a new deal to govern tomato trade with Mexican growers — or state there’s no agreement and move forward with finalizing an anti-dumping duty on imports within 30 days.

Both sides remain in disagreement over a requirement that Mexican tomatoes be subject to border inspections. Commerce originally wanted to require inspection of all tomatoes Mexico shipped across the border. But last week, it revised its proposal to require that 50 percent of all tomato imports be subject to inspection by the Agriculture Department. Mexican growers have argued they are not against inspections but that Commerce’s proposed process would subject them to arbitrary delays at the border with no legal recourse.

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Mexico peso faces difficult times as global trade anxiety sets in: Reuters poll

8/7/19 – Reuters

By Gabriel Burin

Mexico’s peso is falling victim to increasing global trade tensions and will likely struggle in the near future, only a few months after the currency was spared from the impact of direct U.S. tariffs, a Reuters poll showed.

The peso MXN= is expected to trade at 19.66 per dollar in one year, 0.4% weaker than July’s survey and 0.2% softer than its intraday value on Wednesday, according to the median forecast of 17 analysts polled Aug. 2-6.

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Mexico’s dependence on U.S. demand spells trouble for weak economy

8/1/19 – Reuters

By Sharay Angulo

Under the threat of U.S. trade tariffs, Mexico’s president has pledged to make his country less reliant on U.S. demand. But exports to its northern neighbor have been one of the few things driving Latin America’s second-largest economy this year.

Mexican gross domestic product increased 0.1% in the April-June period from the prior quarter, narrowly averting a recession that would have dealt a major blow to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s pledge to rev up the $1.2 trillion economy.

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Mexico Moves to Make Labor Unions More Democratic

8/1/19 – The New York Times

New rules to make Mexican labor union elections more democratic have taken effect, but unions have four years to comply with the measure requiring secret ballots on contracts.

The change is meant to eliminate the longstanding practice in which pro-company “protection” unions sign contracts behind workers’ backs.

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Mexico narrowly escapes recession with minimal second-quarter growth

7/31/19 – Reuters

By Dave Graham and Anthony Esposito

Mexico narrowly avoided slipping into recession during the first half of 2019 as gross domestic product grew by a fraction in the second quarter, data showed on Wednesday, but weakness persisted across the board.

A preliminary estimate published by the national statistics agency showed that Mexico’s economy, Latin America’s second biggest, expanded by 0.1% in the April-June period from the previous quarter, when adjusted for seasonal swings.

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Mexico’s Economy Falters as U.S. Chugs Along

7/14/19 – Wall Street Journal

By Robbie Whelan and Anthony Harrup

Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com

Mexico is slipping toward a recession even as the U.S. economy continues to grow, the first time in 25 years that the neighbors’ economic cycles have fallen sharply out of sync.

The weakening economy is a new challenge for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, following last week’s resignation of his finance minister, Carlos Urzúa, who abruptly quit and blamed the administration for putting political goals above economic considerations.

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Mexico Says Trade Deal Dispute Panel Fix Must Be ‘Across the Board’

7/11/19 – Reuters

By Frank Jack Daniels

President Lopez Obrador celebrating the Senate’s ratification of the USMCA (T-MEC) by lopezobrador.org.mx

Mexico sees a push to close a dispute resolution loophole in the USMCA trade deal as a way to protect its interests as well as helping satisfy demands by U.S. Democrats that the deal contain stricter labor measures, a senior official said on Thursday.

Reuters reported last week that Mexico was working closely with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to close a loophole in the new United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal that allows a country to refuse to form a dispute panel.

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