Changes in Mexican duty

Despite higher prices, shipments of Washington apples to Mexico are running nearly the same as last year. Season to shipments at close to 8.2 million cartons through mid-July.

Little by little, Mexico's protectionist measures against Northwest red and golden delicious apples are falling apart. That's the take I received from one Northwest U.S. apple leader about this recent news report from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service;

On November 13, 2002, a small number of Mexican fruit importing companies petitioned the Secretariat of the Economy (SE) to revoke the August 12, 2002 final resolution on anti-dumping duties on Red and Golden Delicious apples shipped by non-Northwest Fruit Exporters (NFE) companies. This resolution imposed a compensatory duty of 46.58 percent on imported Red and Golden Delicious apples from all but two U.S. companies that are not members of the NFE. The two excepted companies received a zero duty from that ruling. This ruling was confirmed roughly one year later, on August 6, 2003. The Mexican companies were given an opportunity on October 10, 2003, to state their case for the nullification of the August 2002 ruling in front of the Federal Tribunal of Fiscal and Administrative Justice. The Mexican fruit importing companies were successful in their arguments, and on March 29, 2005 the Federal Tribunal issued a verdict declaring the nullification of the August 12, 2002 publication, as well as the confirmation of that decision. The Secretariat of the Economy (SE) disagreed with this ruling, and appealed the decision. UNIFRUT, the Mexican Apple Producers Association, complemented this appeal by petitioning the court for an injunction against the Federal Tribunal decision. However, the SE appeal was rejected, and the NIFRUIT court injunction was denied. On March 20, 2007, the Federal Tribunal demanded that SE comply with the March 29, 2005 verdict, and gave SE 20 days to meet the terms of this ruling. On July 3, 2007, SE announced in the Diario Oficial (Federal Register) that the Final Resolution on the antidumping case on Red and Golden Delicious Apples, published on August 12, 2002, is without effect, as well as the confirmation of this ruling in the same publication on August 6, 2003. The cancellation of this resolution essentially means that non-Northwest Fruit Exporters (NFE) companies are no longer subject to a compensatory duty when exporting Red and Golden Delicious apples to Mexico. SE considers NFE members to be those companies listed in the May 25, 2005 and the November 2, 2006 resolutions published in the Diario Oficial. The compensatory duties published in the resolution of November 2, 2006 are still applicable for NFE companies.