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Specialty crop industry seeks NAFTA reform

A specialty crop leader says the current trade environment under NAFTA has not fared well for many fruit and vegetable growers around the country.

“While our friends in the grain and the meat industry have fared well with NAFTA, the fresh fruit and vegetable industry has been taking it on the cuff from the standpoint of unfair competition coming into the country.”

Reggie Brown with the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association says the United States’  fruit and vegetable trade deficit with Mexico exceeded $5.3 billion as of last year.  “We are basically witnessing the disassembling of the fruit and vegetable industry that competes in the season that Mexico produces product from this country.  And when those family farms are sold, and when those businesses are broken up, there will be no capacity to grow those fruits and vegetables within the bounds of the United States of America.”

Brown urged House Ag Committee members at this week’s hearing to revise NAFTA so that fruit and vegetable sectors in the U.S. are not subject to unfair trading practices and to reform trade enforcement.

AUDIO: Reggie Brown’s testimony

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