Mexico Ruling on U.S. Potatoes Pt 3
I’m Bob Larson. The Mexican Supreme Court ruled last week that its government does have the authority to allow the import of U.S. fresh potatoes.
Now, according to National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles, the two governments will try and work out the details …
QUARLES … “Clearly, there’s going to be political influence at play, but, I mean, I think it’s pretty obvious that Secretary Vilsack, U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Tai, they’re really engaged in this issue. They know it very well and I think they’re going to want to get a win here because this issue is, even though it’s been kind of embroiled in a ton of politics, it’s easy to solve.”
It’s happened before, Quarles says, so Mexico should be able to handle it …
QUARLES … “Given the past history on this and given the facts that are out there, you’re not going in to entirely new territory where you’ve got to get answers to a bunch of questions that haven’t been asked. All of these things have been signed on the dotted line.”
At this point, Quarles says, it should all come together sooner than later …
QUARLES … “If we don’t have some really substantive movement toward market access in the next six months, there may be some additional steps that need to be taken. This is not a long-term process that Mexico has to go through. They’ve done it before. They can do it quickly.”
The U.S. potato industry estimates that access to all of Mexico for fresh potatoes has the market potential of $200-million per year within five years.
