{"text":[[{"start":9.14,"text":"In the 1990s, tomato fields covered more than 60,000 acres of Florida, with hundreds of bustling family farms producing the fruit. Today, less than half of that land is in cultivation, and growers point the finger at one country: Mexico."}],[{"start":30.330000000000002,"text":"In July, President Donald Trump sided with Florida farmers, imposing a 17 per cent anti-dumping duty on Mexican tomatoes and accusing producers of selling at less than the cost of production. US growers see the levy, which took effect in July and is separate from broader trade tariff negotiations, as a lifeline for their declining industry."}],[{"start":58.07,"text":"“It was a shock to see the Trump administration willing to stand up and give us what we thought we were due,” said Bob Spencer, president of West Coast Tomato in Florida. “It’s happiness but a tinge of sadness, thinking about the ones that haven’t been able to survive.”"}],[{"start":75.26,"text":"Florida may expand production slightly, “but it won’t be any huge increase back to where we were”, Spencer said."}],[{"start":84.35000000000001,"text":"Mexico now supplies more than 60 per cent of the fresh tomatoes consumed in the US, a stark example of how the country has won market share across sectors to become the US’s top trading partner since the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect in 1994."}],[{"start":105.74000000000001,"text":"That has also made it a prime target for Trump since his first presidential campaign. The duty is part of a glut of allegations of trade violations he has thrown at Mexico, alongside broader pressure on security and migration."}],[{"start":123.24000000000001,"text":"The tomato duty, which uses a different legal instrument to regular tariffs, is the first Trump trade levy to directly target a fresh food staple. For Mexico, most others are currently tariff-free under a carve-out for the updated US-Mexico-Canada pact, which was extended on Thursday."}],[{"start":144.79000000000002,"text":"“It’s more evidence that the government of Donald Trump is profoundly protectionist and will try to put up roadblocks,” said Juan Carlos Baker, a former Mexican deputy economy minister and researcher at Panamerican university. “There are political movements, like in Florida in this case, that are more important than trade.”"}],[{"start":170.89000000000001,"text":"Mexican farmers deny selling at below their costs and tell a different story to their US counterparts. They say that over time they have simply outcompeted the old-fashioned US farms, making huge investments to grow better products with lower labour costs and better weather."}],[{"start":191.19000000000003,"text":"“In Florida, they are still doing what they’ve done their whole lives,” said Germán Gándara, president of the Mexican Association of Protected Horticulture. “In Mexico, we’ve evolved in technology, in varieties, in quality, in flavours, in colours . . . frankly we’ve become better.”"}],[{"start":212.43000000000004,"text":"Gándara, who is chief executive of Ganfer Greenhouses, one of Mexico’s largest tomato producers, said the duty was already hitting the sector, with producers trying to adjust production and contracts, and agree higher prices with customers."}],[{"start":230.56000000000003,"text":"So far there have been no mass lay-offs, and Mexico’s growers are holding out for a deal after the two countries just agreed a 90-day extension to broader tariffs. But if left in place, the duty will profoundly disrupt the more than $7bn industry that employs half a million people in Mexico."}],[{"start":250.91000000000003,"text":"“Everyone is very worried on both sides of the border,” Gándara said. “If this supply chain breaks . . . the unemployment wouldn’t be good for either side.”"}],[{"start":262.51000000000005,"text":"The tomato dispute started soon after Nafta came into force, as Mexican imports quickly surged. Following complaints from US growers, a 1996 deal suspended a US anti-dumping investigation and established a minimum price floor."}],[{"start":281.66,"text":"That has been renewed and revised four times, but the Florida growers were never satisfied. The Trump administration withdrew from the latest agreement in mid-July, triggering the 17 per cent duty with immediate effect."}],[{"start":299.45000000000005,"text":"Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has said her government would support the tomato industry, but she is implementing the biggest budget cuts in decades with little space for direct financial backing. US-Mexico talks are ongoing but encompass a huge range of issues, and producers are preparing for the possibility of duties to be in place for a while."}],[{"start":325.94000000000005,"text":"“There’s really no discussions going on right now,” said Robert Guenther, executive vice-president of the Florida Tomato Exchange. “I think everybody’s just really sitting here and figuring out how this is going to work.”"}],[{"start":342.27000000000004,"text":"Some smaller farmers in Mexico were already struggling to export, as they cannot put up the cash deposit or bond required to cover the duties, Gándara said."}],[{"start":353.76000000000005,"text":"It is also compounding existing challenges from an ongoing cartel war in Sinaloa, Mexico’s biggest tomato producing state — where local identity is so enmeshed with the sector that its capital’s baseball team is called the tomateros."}],[{"start":371.89000000000004,"text":"The US has no replacement for Mexican tomatoes in the short term, though — particularly in winter. At the centre of any debate over Trump’s trade measures is who will bear the cost."}],[{"start":385.63000000000005,"text":"Price data has not yet been released for the period after the new duties were imposed. US growers say farm-level prices could rise, which would eat into retailers’ and distributors’ profits but would not necessarily affect regular Americans. But Mexico’s National Agricultural Council said the consumer would pay, predicting that prices would go up 11.5 per cent."}],[{"start":412.01000000000005,"text":"Gándara said if US companies want to produce more, it would require large investments in expensive land and technology, which inevitably would lead to higher prices."}],[{"start":425.05000000000007,"text":"“Trump might be right about a lot of places he’s putting tariffs on . . . but there are some places where it doesn’t make as much sense,” he said. “Our production is complementary to the United States.”"}],[{"start":448.11000000000007,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftmailbox.cn/album/a_1754354018_3597.mp3"}