04/08/05 The hang up with Mexico, Finale

The tariff remains in effect. That is the primary affect of Mexican apple grower's successful court injunction to halt the lifting of an over forty-six per cent tariff on U.S. Red and Golden Delicious apples going into Mexico. But the secondary affect, according to international trade attorney Bill Bryant, is the separate court decisions that are holding up a potential resolution. One court basically has ruled that the Mexican government must keep the tariff in place, while another agrees that the original agreement made in an anti-dumping case against the U.S. was unconstitutional, and therefore requires the restart of the 1997 investigation that led originally to tariffs being put in place. BRYANT: There are appeals currently before the courts. And it's anticipated that soon, this problem between the two courts will be resolved. The likely resolution will be that the Mexican government will be directed to restart the investigation. That's means that the duty would go away. The Mexican government would send new questionnaires to the U.S. industry. The U.S. industry would complete those questionnaires. And then four or five months later, Mexico would have to come up with a preliminary determination on whether or not dumping had occurred. And what the U.S. apple industry is waiting on is the ruling of the appeals in both courts & expected to come at any time.