Moody, Buchanan Rally Florida Delegation to Block Mexican Produce Dumping on Local Farmers

Sen. Ashley Moody and Rep. Vern Buchanan led a bicameral letter to President Donald Trump this week demanding targeted trade protections for Florida farmers against what they called the illegal seasonal dumping of low-priced Mexican produce into U.S. markets.

The letter, signed by 13 members of Florida's congressional delegation, urges the administration to establish seasonal, product-specific tariff-rate quotas during the upcoming joint review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. That review mechanism was built into the USMCA — the 2020 replacement for NAFTA negotiated during Trump's first term — and provides a formal window to renegotiate terms.

Treasure Coast farmers and the agricultural economy they support across Martin and St. Lucie counties are directly exposed to the pressures described in the letter. Florida's produce sector, which includes winter tomatoes, peppers and other seasonal vegetables grown throughout the region, competes head-to-head with Mexican imports in the same harvest windows. St. Lucie County's farm operations and the packing and distribution jobs tied to them face margin compression when low-priced imports undercut domestic prices at harvest time.

"Florida's farmers are being squeezed out of their own market by a flood of low-priced imports from Mexico," said Buchanan, a Longboat Key Republican who serves as vice chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. Buchanan helped negotiate the USMCA in 2019 and filed the Defending Domestic Produce Protection Act in 2023 targeting the same practices.

"For too long, Mexico has taken advantage of trade agreements in ways that put Florida growers at a disadvantage," said Moody, a Plant City Republican.

Mike Joyner, president of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, said the industry needs the administration to act. "Without these targeted safeguards, we risk undermining our nation's food and national security," Joyner said.

The Commerce Department announced last year it would end a longstanding agreement permitting tomato imports from Mexico, but agriculture leaders say import pressures have continued across other produce categories. According to available information,

The USMCA joint review, scheduled for 2026 six years after the agreement's 2020 implementation, sets the timeline for any tariff-rate quota action the administration may take.

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