Trump administration to slap Mexican tomatoes with 21% ‘antidumping duty’ 

Most tomatoes imported from Mexico will be hit with a 21% tariff this summer in an effort to “protect” US growers, the Trump administration announced Monday. 

The new fee will be implemented on July 14, near the start of peak tomato season, and when the Department of Commerce intends to terminate a 2019 trade agreement with Mexico on the red fruit. 

“The current agreement has failed to protect US tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports,” read a statement released by the Department of Commerce, noting that the agency has been “flooded with comments” urging the government to withdraw from the agreement struck during President Trump’s first term. 

“This action will allow U.S. tomato growers to compete fairly in the marketplace,” the department added. 

“With the termination of this agreement, Commerce will institute an antidumping duty order on July 14, 2025, resulting in duties of 20.91% on most imports of tomatoes from Mexico,” the statement continued. 

The US imported $2.7 billion worth of tomatoes from Mexico in 2023, making it the top tomato export market for Mexico. 

The 2019 deal with Mexico, which averted tariffs on the commodity, established minimum pricing standards on Mexican tomatoes and included a mechanism to inspect for and bar low-quality fruit from entering the US market.

The agreement the Trump administration plans to withdraw from applies to all fresh and chilled tomatoes and excludes tomatoes for processing.

Michael R. Strain, the director of economic policy studies and a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, argued that the “astonishing” policy will drive up tomato prices in the US. 

“It is astonishing that the Trump administration is intentionally trying to make tomatoes more expensive,” Strain wrote on X. “President Trump won the 2024 election in large part because groceries were expensive.” 

The tomato duty follows the Trump administration slapping 25% across-the-board tariffs against Mexico in an effort to get the US neighbor to clamp down on illegal immigration and drug smuggling. 

The tariff excludes imports subject to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that Trump negotiated during his first term.