T he United States has initiated renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and Mexico. The Administration's agriculture-related objectives in the renegotiation include a contentious proposal to establish trade remedies for perishable and seasonal products. The proposal would establish separate domestic provisions for seasonal products such as fruits and vegetables in anti-dumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) proceedings, making it easier to initiate a trade remedy case against (mostly Mexican) exports to the United States. While some in Congress support adding a seasonal AD/CVD proposal as part of NAFTA renegotiations, others in Congress and most U.S. food and agricultural groups—including U.S. fruit and vegetable producer groups—oppose the proposal. Some also worry that efforts to push for seasonal protections, among other U.S. proposals, could derail agricultural provisions in the NAFTA renegotiation. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) agriculture-related NAFTA negotiating objectives cover agricultural market access and regulatory cooperation, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures (including agricultural biotechnology), geographical indications (GIs), and trade remedies for perishable and seasonal products in AD/CVD proceedings, among other general provisions addressing dispute settlement and regulatory harmonization. Selected USTR agriculture-related objectives are shown in the text box below. The Administration's most recent market access objectives for U.S. agriculture specifically target remaining Canadian tariffs on imports of U.S. dairy, poultry, and egg products that are subject to tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) and certain technical barriers to U.S. grain and alcohol beverages. Potential opportunities for the U.S. food and agriculture industries as part of the ongoing NAFTA renegotiation include the following: improve agricultural market access by liberalizing remaining dutiable agricultural products that were exempted from the original agreement; update NAFTA's SPS provisions by "going beyond" existing World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations regarding risk assessment, transparency, notification, response and enforcement; and address certain outstanding agricultural trade disputes between the United States and its NAFTA partners, including concerns regarding dairy, fruits, vegetables, wine, and a range of SPS and GI concerns. One of the more controversial agricultural proposals considered by U.S. negotiators would establish seasonal protections for U.S. agriculture in trade remedy cases. The U.S. proposal would "[s]eek a separate domestic industry provision for perishable and seasonal products in AD/CVD proceedings." Although the precise text of the proposal is not publicly available, the proposal would reportedly protect certain U.S. fruit and vegetable producers by making it easier to initiate trade remedy cases against (mostly) Mexican seasonal exports to the United States. The proposal responds to complaints by some fruit and vegetable producers, mostly in Southeastern states, who claim to be adversely affected by import competition from Mexico. Antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) address unfair trade practices by providing relief to U.S. industries and workers that are "materially injured," or threatened with injury, due to imports of like products that are sold in the U.S. market at less than fair value (AD) or where production has been subsidized by a foreign government or public entity (CVD). Dumping refers to a form of price discrimination whereby goods are sold in one export market at prices lower than the prices of comparable goods in the home market or in other export markets. Unfair subsidies refer to financial payments and other forms of government support to foreign manufacturers or exporters that might give them an unfair advantage over U.S. producers and comparable domestic goods. At the end of an investigative process, in AD cases, the remedy is an additional duty placed on the imported merchandise to offset the difference between the price (or cost) in the foreign market and the price in the U.S. market. In CVD cases, a duty equivalent to the amount of subsidy is placed on the imports. The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) determines if a U.S. industry has suffered material injury, and, if so, the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce then determines the existence and amount of dumping or subsidy. AD and CVD provisions in U.S. law are in Title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671-1677n, as amended). U.S. laws and those of other WTO members must comply with obligations under the WTO Antidumping and Subsidies Agreements. There are no seasonal provisions under current U.S. laws governing AD/CVD. CVD law and regulation establish standards for determining when an unfair subsidy has been conferred by a foreign government and is intended to offset any unfair competitive advantage that foreign manufacturers or exporters might have over U.S. producers because of foreign countervailable subsidies. Such subsidies provide financial assistance to benefit the production, manufacture, or exportation of goods (e.g., either through direct cash payments, export subsidies, import substitution subsidies, credits against taxes, or loans at terms below market rates). The amount of subsidies the foreign producer receives from the government is the basis for the subsidy rate by which the subsidy is offset, or "countervailed," through higher import duties. AD law and regulations authorize higher duties on imported goods if ITA determines that an imported product is being sold at less than its fair value and if the USITC determines that a U.S. producer is thereby being injured. If an AD/CVD investigation results in final affirmative determinations by both agencies, the ITA issues an AD or CVD order directing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect duties on the imported merchandise. Previous USITC investigations have highlighted the increased competitive market and trade pressures on U.S. fruit producers from lower-cost foreign fruit and vegetable producers (such as those in China, Thailand, Chile, Argentina, and South Africa) as well as from countries with subsidized fruit and vegetable production (such as in the European Union, including Spain). Import injury investigations initiated by the United States further highlight concerns that some countries might be supplying imports at prices below fair market value. Since the 1990s, dumping petitions filed by the U.S. fruit and vegetable sectors have included charges against imports of fresh tomatoes (Canada, Mexico), frozen raspberries (Chile), apple juice concentrate (China), frozen orange juice (Brazil), lemon juice (Argentina, Mexico), fresh garlic (China), preserved mushrooms (China, Chile, India, Indonesia), canned pineapple (Thailand), table grapes (Chile, Mexico), and tart cherry juice (Germany, former Yugoslavia). Many of these petitions were decided in favor of U.S. domestic producers and resulted in higher tariffs being assessed on U.S. imported products from some of these countries. In addition, seasonal tariffs—for example, higher import tariffs for certain fruits and vegetables imported during U.S. peak season—are already part of the U.S. tariff schedule for many fruits and vegetables imported from countries under most-favored-nation (MFN) status. In the United States, higher MFN seasonal tariffs apply to berries, melons, citrus, pears, stonefruit, tomatoes, cucumbers, asparagus, eggplant, cole crops, legumes, and tropical products. Specific details regarding USTR's perishable and seasonal proposal for NAFTA are not publicly available. However, according to groups that are supporting such a provision, the proposal would establish new rules for seasonal and perishable products, such as fruits and vegetables, and ensure that producers who are susceptible to trade surges at certain times of the year have recourse to trade remedies. It would also address practices that adversely affect trade in perishable and cyclical crops while also improving import relief mechanisms. Other reports indicate that the proposal seeks to modify U.S. AD/CVD laws by allowing growers to bring an injury case by domestic region and draw on seasonal data. This differs from current law, which requires that an injury case be supported by a majority (at least 50%) of the domestic industry, whereas USTRs seasonal proposal would allow regional groups representing less than 50% of nationwide seasonal growers to initiate an injury. This would make it easier for a group of regional producers to initiate trade remedy cases even if the majority of producers within the industry, or in other regions, do not support initiating an injury case. As will be discussed later, such a change to U.S. trade laws could further deepen divisions in the fruit and vegetable industry regarding the proposal. Also, under current law, three years of annual data are necessary to prove injury, whereas the proposal would allow for the use of seasonal data to prove injury. Although an industry can currently initiate an AD/CVD case under U.S. law, such efforts can often be costly to initiate, time-consuming, and difficult to prove. USTR's proposal would require a change in AD/CVD requirements, making it easier for a group of regional producers to initiate an injury case and make it easier to prove injury and thus institute higher tariffs on imported products. Mexico's production of some fruits and vegetables—tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, berries, and melons—has increased sharply in recent years. Increased supplies have contributed to increased U.S. imports for many types of fruits and vegetables from Mexico, particularly for tomatoes, avocados, peppers, and berries ( Figure 1 , Figure 2 ). Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report that Mexico is the largest foreign supplier of U.S. imports of vegetables and fruits (excluding bananas).