‘I give it three months, and then we go bankrupt,’ says one Californian restaurant owner
  • Donald Trump has imposed a 17 per cent tariff on tomatoes imported from Mexico, raising concerns about increased prices for consumers and businesses.
  • The tariffs took effect after the US withdrew from the nearly three-decade-old Tomato Suspension Agreement, with the Secretary of Commerce stating American farmers had been ‘crushed by unfair trade practices’. The Commerce Department calculated the 17 per cent import tax to measure the percentage by which Mexican tomatoes were allegedly sold at unfair prices in the US.
  • The measure is expected to result in higher costs at supermarkets and restaurants, with one Californian restaurant owner predicting bankruptcy within three months.
  • Mexico, which supplies about 70 per cent of US tomatoes, has refuted claims of dumping, insisting the popularity of their produce is due to its quality, and stated that substitution would be impossible.
  • Bonus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    2 days ago

    They’re family-run operations, proudly owned by generations of Latinos, in many local cases. You’re talking full-on internment camps if they’re to forcibly remove these legal citizens from their businesses. I’m not saying that isn’t in the works but these aren’t only field workers vulnerable to being terrorized. There’s a vast co-op network they pull resources from. If trump is going to truly go after all production, food will cease to be available. We will see economic destruction that will make the Great Depression pale in comparison.