U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai has decided on whether to launch a 301-trade investigation against Mexican fruit and vegetable imports. Ambassador Tai rejected the petition from Florida lawmakers representing that state’s fruit and vegetable industry, siding instead with a bipartisan group of Midwest and Northwest Senators against a trade investigation.
Among those senators, Iowa’s Chuck Grassley; “Pursuing this would have undermined our relationship with Mexico and could have led to tariffs being imposed on other Ag products from our country, it will also help U.S. consumers who would have seen prices at the grocery store climb even higher, as tariffs were placed on Mexican produce.”
While possibly upsetting regional cooperation intended by the long-sought U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Grassley, meantime, renewed his call with a dozen other Senators to EPA chief Michael Regan to issue a robust proposal for renewable fuel volumes next month.
“I have doubts that they’ll act on time and will do it just exactly the way we asked. But we know what the practice has been, 15 billion gallons, and then, for advanced fuels, it needs to be even more. And they keep promising us that we’ve got certainty for the future. I heard Regan tell me that over the phone a couple of times, and now it’s time for him to deliver, or he’s a liar!”
EPA, in recent years, has missed deadlines for issuing renewable volume obligations, illegally waived refiner obligations or delayed court orders to restore them, raising concerns of favoring big oil versus ethanol.
