𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The Trump administration is throwing a 21 percent tariff on tomatoes imported from Mexico, suspending an agreement the president made during his first term.

Trump’s 2019 trade agreement with Mexico will be terminated in 90 days, when a levy of 20.91 percent will be imposed on most tomatoes coming from the country, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Monday. The move marks the latest action President Donald Trump has taken against one of the largest U.S. trading partners.

“The current agreement has failed to protect U.S. tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports,” the department wrote in its release. “This action will allow U.S. tomato growers to compete fairly in the marketplace.”

The new levy will take effect on July 14.

The move comes six years after Trump’s earlier deal with tomato growers in Mexico, where the growing season is significantly longer that in America, preventing what could have been a 25 percent tariff from taking effect.

At the time, the Commerce Department said the U.S. imported roughly $2 billion worth of tomatoes from Mexico each year.

The department wrote in September 2019: “The suspension agreement completely eliminates the injurious effects of unfairly priced Mexican tomatoes, prevents price suppression and undercutting, and eliminates substantially all dumping, while allowing Commerce to audit up to 80 Mexican tomato producers and U.S. sellers per quarter, or more with good cause.”

The agreement was struck after Florida growers requested the termination of a 2013 deal.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said of the new tariff that she hopes the two countries can reach a new agreement, adding that the quality of Mexico’s tomatoes “is not substitutable by any other in the world.”

“This process has happened many times, and Mexico always comes out winning. But if this sanction is applied, Mexican tomatoes will still be exported to the US, because there’s no substitute,” she said Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Mexican Agriculture Minister Julio Berdegue similarly said: “A 90-day window is now open. There is going to be a conversation with the United States. We are looking for this agreement to be renewed.”

Monday’s announcement is the latest in Trump’s trade war with the nation’s southern neighbor. The president in February announced he was imposing a 25 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada and Mexico to hold the nations “accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”

Trump campaigned against high food prices, and vowed to bring them down as soon as he gained the White House. He has said he won the election on “groceries.” Instead he imposed tariffs that will increase the price consumers will have to pay for food, and will decrease competition, which will also drive up prices.