Trade dispute with Mexico nears resolution

The Obama administration is “very close” to unveiling a plan
that could help end a year-old tariff by Mexico on Washington frozen
potatoes and other agricultural products, Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood said Thursday.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., questioned
LaHood about the status of administration efforts to resolve a trade
dispute that contributed to a $19.7 million decline in the value of
exported Washington agricultural products to Mexico in 2009 compared
with 2008.

Mexico imposed a 20 percent tariff on about 90
agricultural and other products last year. And it has hit potato farmers
particularly hard because Mexico is the No. 2 international export
market for Washington frozen potatoes.

Washington sustained an estimated $14 million decline in frozen
potatoes exported to Mexico from April to December 2009, according to
the Washington State Potato Commission. About 20,000 jobs are supported
by the state’s potato industry.

The U.S. potato industry, said the
commission, has lost $31 million worth of export business since the
start of the retaliatory tariffs, which were imposed after the
expiration of a pilot program that allowed about 100 Mexican-owned
trucks access to U.S. highways.

LaHood, questioned by Murray at
the end of his appearance before a Senate subcommittee she chairs, said
the administration will be announcing a new effort to restore the
cross-border trucking program.

“President Obama’s intent is to
restart this program. It’s part of NAFTA,” LaHood told Murray.

The
trade dispute began in April 2009 after the end of the pilot trucking
program, which was intended to show that Mexican trucks and drivers
could operate safely on U.S. highways beyond border areas.

The
Teamsters Union and some highway safety groups objected to the pilot
program, arguing Mexican trucks are unsafe.

But the fallout has
hurt Washington growers and it has cost jobs, Murray said, citing the
pending closure of the ConAgra Lamb Weston plant in Prosser.

ConAgra
told its 250 employees in Prosser in late March that the closure was a
reflection of the economy, sale of fewer frozen potato products and the
expense of operating the plant.

“If we don’t address this problem
soon, this will just be the beginning. Thousands more jobs in Washington
state and across the country are in serious jeopardy of being shipped
outside our borders,” Murray said.

The tariffs will be one of the
topics of discussion between President Obama and Mexican President
Felipe Calderon during his state visit to Washington this month,
Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhan, told Murray during a
meeting earlier this week.

– Tri-City Herald