Fruits and vegetables - including potatoes- are the most common items on the list of 90 products hit with tariffs as of today, as Mexico retaliated against a U.S. decision to block Mexican trucks from traveling north of a commercial zone along the border.
The choice may reflect a calculated move by the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon to exert pressure on U.S. lawmakers to back off on the trucking decision, said Ed Gresser, a fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington and a former official at the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.
“The agricultural constituencies are powerful and they go to Congress and say, ‘What are you doing to me?’” Gresser said in an interview.
Potato growers alone could lose an annual market of $80 million, said John Keeling, chief executive of the National Potato Council in Washington. “This thing has to be fixed,” Keeling said. “It’s unconscionable that Congress let this happen.”
Mexico acted after Congress inserted in a budget bill a provision to halt funding for a program that let a limited number of Mexican trucks deliver goods throughout the U.S.
