Ag News

Georgia reps urge USTR to ensure fair trade for American speciality crops

On May 12 a bipartisan group of 79 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Jamieson Greer to emphasize the importance of fair-trade measures for the U.S. specialty crop industry.

“America’s growers and producers are the best in the world. Current Mexican trade practices have flooded our markets with products that are held to a lower production standard than those produced here by American farmers,” said Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA 8th District). “The USMCA review process gives us an opportunity to reaffirm and recommit our support for domestic agriculture and the American farmer by forcing Mexico to play by the same rules if they want to import to the United States.”

Scott was joined as signatories on the letter by Reps. Buddy Carter, Lucy McBath, Rich McCormick, Mike Collins, Andrew Clyde, Sanford Bishop, Rick Allen, Barry Loudermilk, Clay Fuller and Brian Jack.

Georgia Farm Bureau and American Farm Bureau were among 25 agricultural organizations that endorsed the letter.

The letter urges the Trump administration to address the urgent crisis as unfairly traded imports from Mexico undercut U.S. growers and creates a significant competitive disadvantage for American producers. The letter calls for improved trade measures, as part of the 2026 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) review process, that protect the long-term viability of America’s fruit, vegetable, and certain tree nut industries, and ensure continued access to domestically grown food.

The congressmen pointed out that fresh fruit and vegetable imports from Mexico have increased by more than 550 percent since 2001, driven by fundamental cost and regulatory advantages. Mexican producers operate with significantly lower labor and production expenses—agricultural wages are about one-tenth of U.S. levels—while U.S. growers depend heavily on the higher-cost H-2A program for seasonal labor.

In the letter, the Members write: "Without measures to restore competitive balance, specialty crop production will increasingly move to foreign countries. We urge you to evaluate trade actions that can safeguard U.S. growers from unfair pressures from Mexico. This work is essential to maintaining U.S. competitiveness in the specialty crop sector and to ensuring Americans continue to have access to high-quality, domestically grown food—an issue fundamental to our national security.”

Click here to read the letter in its entirety.

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