California Democrat Joins Southeastern Members' Seasonality Push
Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., joined with Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., to take a new approach in the argument that American produce growers are losing money because of unfair competition from Mexican imports. The bill would create a seasonal and perishable crop loss subsidy program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which the bill's sponsors say "would help producers make up the difference between their production costs and the market costs that have been driven down by unfairly subsidized foreign products. Producers electing to participate in the crop loss program would need to show that the reduced market price is due to imports of their same crop from foreign competitors." The bill was introduced July 21.
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Previous efforts, led by the Florida and Georgia delegations, have sought -- either through negotiations during the NAFTA rewrite, or through legislation, or through a case at the International Trade Commission -- to make Mexican fruits and vegetables more expensive, at least in the weeks when their crops overlap with U.S. production. But the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not include a change to antidumping laws in the NAFTA redo, and the ITC said that blueberry growers have not been damaged by foreign imports. The ITC is still investigating similar complaints on bell peppers, strawberries, cucumbers and squash.