Mexico Sows Apples of Discord

Mexico’s apple consumption has soared by over 40% during the past 10 years. Yet domestic production hasn’t kept up with the country’s appetite. Growers from the state of Washington have mainly filled the hole with a nearly threefold increase in US exports of apples to Mexico since NAFTA. Mexico reacted by imposing anti-dumping duties of up to 20.82% on US apple imports from January to June of 2016. As a result, imports of apples by Mexico during that five-month period plummeted year-over-year by roughly 34%. Since Mexico wasn't able to expand production, the country’s consumers were the real losers. With the peso weakening on talk of trade wars over NAFTA modifications, Mexico’s taste for apples is likely to sour even further in 2017.