Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley had a chit-chat with Mexico’s ambassador to the United States late Monday afternoon. Grassley spilled the beans that he and Ambassador Esteban Moctezuma Barragán had a heart-to-heart about trade stuff between our two countries. The hot topics on the agenda? Deadly threats to livestock and humans from a pesky parasite and concerns about exporting a certain veggie.
Grassley spilled the tea, saying, “He’s asking for consideration of certain attempts by some members of Congress to end a decades (-long) agreement that we’ve had on tomatoes.” Basically, Mexico sends a boatload of tomatoes to the U.S., but the Trump administration wants to kick them to the curb with a hefty tariff. Grassley also mentioned that the Mexicans are sweating about the potential loss of revenue since tomato exports to the U.S. raked in over a billion bucks in 2023. Seems like a big deal.
The situation gets hairier when you throw in the rising dread about parasitic screwworms hitching a ride on livestock from Mexico. These nasty flies lay eggs in open wounds, and when the larva pops out, it goes full-on horror movie on living flesh. Grassley mentioned that the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture had to slap some restrictions on bison, cattle, and other critters coming in from Mexico to prevent a screwworm invasion. The U.S. went full-on lockdown, halting all live cattle, horses, and bison imports from Mexico to avoid a repeat of the last screwworm invasion that took three decades to recover from. Yikes.
