Is there FDA discrimination by country of orign?

One reader left a note in a previous post and asks if the FDA treats domestic and foreign farms even handedly. He observed that Mexican cantaloupe exporters were hit hard by the FDA.
You can find the "anonymous" comment after the "5 deaths" post and I'll post it here, too:


Why the USA companies with similar contaminated products get the same punishment as the Mexican cantaloupe growers got?Any produce origin discrimination there? Is the USDA/FDA law applied differently for USA grown produce as for foreign grown products?Was going in on here? Has NAFTA agreements also different for this type of treatment for out of the USA produce?


TK: I think the comment brings up a point of sensitivity that many foreign suppliers might voice. Yet at the same time, domestic producers are rightly concerned that there is no way that foreign growers will have the same kind of scrutiny from FDA inspectors that they have to endure and anticipate.