UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION In the Matter of: ) Investigation No.: FRESH TOMATOES FROM MEXICO ) 731-TA-747 (FOURTH REVIEW) Pages: 1 - 275 Place: Washington, D.C. Date: Thursday, March 21, 2019 Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. Stenotype Reporters 1625 I Street, NW Suite 790 Washington, D.C. 20006 202-347-3700 Nationwide Coverage www.acefederal.com 1 1 THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION 2 In the Matter of: ) Investigation No.: 3 FRESH TOMATOES FROM MEXICO ) 731-TA-747 4 ) (Fourth Review) 5 6 7 8 Thursday, March 21, 2019 9 Main Hearing Room (Room 101) 10 U.S. International 11 Trade Commission 12 500 E Street, S.W. 13 Washington, D.C. 14 The meeting commenced, pursuant to notice, at 15 9:30 a.m., before the Commissioners of the United States 16 International Trade Commission, Commissioner Irving A. 17 Williamson, presiding. 18 APPEARANCES: 19 On behalf of the International Trade Commission: 20 Commissioners: 21 Commissioner Irving A. Williamson (presiding) 22 Commissioner Meredith M. Broadbent 23 Commissioner Rhonda K. Schmidtlein 24 25 Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 2 1 Staff: 2 SHARON BELLAMY, RECORDS MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST 3 TYRELL T. BURCH, PROGRAM SUPPORT SPECIALIST 4 5 Christopher W. Robinson, Investigator 6 Amelia Shister, Investigator 7 Angleica Marrero-Sanchez, International Trade Analyst 8 James Horne, International Economist 9 Brian Allen, Attorney/Advisor 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 3 1 APPEARANCES: 2 Opening Remarks: 3 In Support of the Continuation of Order (Mary Jane Alves, 4 Cassidy Levy Kent (USA) LLP) 5 In Opposition to the Continuation of Order (Tom Wilner, 6 Shearman & Sterling, LLP) 7 8 In Support of the Continuation of Antidumping Duty Order: 9 Cassidy Levy Kent (USA) LLP 10 Washington, DC 11 on behalf of 12 Florida Tomatoes Exchange ("FTE") 13 Jon Esformes, Chief Executive Officer, Sunripe 14 Certified Brands 15 Anthony J. DiMare, Vice President, DiMare Homestead 16 Inc. and Vice Chairman, FTE 17 Priya Singh, General Manager and Secretary, West Coast 18 Tomato Growers, Inc. 19 Michael Schadler, Executive Vice President, FTE 20 Fred Leitz, Chief Executive Officer, Leitz Farms, LLC 21 Chad Ianneo, President, SunSelect Produce California 22 Aris Pappas, Chief Operating Officer - Pete Pappas and 23 Son, Inc. 24 Robert C. Cassidy, Jr., James R. Cannon, Jr., Mary Jane 25 Alves - Of Counsel -- continued -- Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 4 1 APPEARANCES (Continued): 2 In Opposition to the Continuation of Antidumping Duty Order 3 Shearman & Sterling LLP 4 Washington, DC 5 on behalf of 6 Confederacion de Asociaciones Agricolas del Estado de 7 Sinaloa, A.C. ("CAADES") 8 Consejo Agricola de Baja California, A.C. ("CABC") 9 Asociacion Mexicana de Horticulture Protegida, A.C. 10 ("AMHPAC") 11 Asociacionde Productures de Hortalizas del Yaqui y Mayo 12 ("APHYM") 13 Sistema Producto Tomate ("AMHPAC") 14 Theojary Crisantes Enciso, President, Board of 15 Directors, Wholesum Family Farms 16 Felice Arboisiere, Technical Services, Yum Brands, Inc. 17 Michael J. Agostini, Consultant and Owner, Miago 18 Produce 19 Jaime Chamberlain, President, Chamberlain Distribution 20 Inc. 21 Dr. Hal Singer, Managing Partner, Econ One 22 Lisa Raisner, Government Relations, Shearman & Sterling LLP 23 Martin Ley, President - Fresh Evolution 24 Thomas B. Wilner, Robert S. LaRussa, Jon Weingart - Of 25 Counsel -- continued -- Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 5 1 APPEARANCES (Continued): 2 In Opposition to the Continuation of Antidumping Order 3 (continued): 4 Arent Fox LLP 5 Washington, DC 6 on behalf of 7 NS Brands, Ltd. 8 Bryant Ambelang, Chief Executive Officer 9 Skip Hulett, Vice President and General Counsel 10 Michael M. Nolan, Andrew Jaxa-Debicki - Of Counsel 11 12 REBUTTAL/CLOSING REMARKS: 13 In Support of the Continuation of Order (James Cannon, Jr., 14 Cassidy Levy Kent (USA) LLP) 15 In Opposition to the Continuation of Order (Tom Wilner, 16 Shearman & Sterling, LLP; and Matthew M. Nolan, Arent Fox 17 LLP) 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 6 1 I N D E X 2 Page 3 In Support of the Continuation of Order (Mary Jane Alves, 4 Cassidy Levy Kent (USA) LLP) 9 5 6 In Opposition to the Continuation of Order (Tom Wilner, 7 Shearman & Sterling, LLP) 13 8 9 Robert C. Cassidy, Cassidy Levy Kent (USA) LLP 18 10 11 Fred Leitz, Chief Executive Officer, Leitz Farms, LLC 20 12 13 Priya Singh, General Manager and Secretary, West Coast 14 Tomato Growers, Inc. 26 15 16 Chad Ianneo, President, SunSelect Produce California 30 17 18 Jon Esformes, Chief Executive Officer, Sunripe 19 Certified Brands 32 20 21 Anthony J. DiMare, Vice President, DiMare Homestead 22 Inc. and Vice Chairman, FTE 38 23 24 Aris Pappas, Chief Operating Officer - Pete Pappas and 25 Son, Inc. 42 Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 7 1 I N D E X 2 Page 3 James R. Cannon, Jr., Cassidy Levy Kent (USA) LLP 49 4 5 Theojary Crisantes Enciso, President, Board of 6 Directors, Wholesum Family Farms 145 7 8 Michael J. Agostini, Consultant and Owner, Miago 9 Produce 148 10 11 Felice Arboisiere, Technical Services, Yum Brands, Inc. 151 12 13 Jaime Chamberlain, President, Chamberlain Distribution 14 Inc. 155 15 16 Bryant Ambelang, Chief Executive Officer 159 17 18 Dr. Hal Singer, Managing Partner, Econ One 166 19 20 In Support of the Continuation of Order (James Cannon, Jr., 21 Cassidy Levy Kent (USA) LLP) 260 22 23 In Opposition to the Continuation of Order (Matthew M. 24 Nolan, Arent Fox LLP 265 25 Tom Wilner, Shearman & Sterling, LLP 269 Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 8 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 9:30 a.m. 3 MR. BURCH: Will the room please come to order? 4 Will you please be seated? 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMSON: Good morning. On behalf 6 of the U.S. International Trade Commission I welcome you to 7 this hearing on Investigation No. 731-TA-747, Fourth Review 8 involving Fresh Tomatoes from Mexico. 9 The purpose of this review is to determine 10 whether termination of the suspended investigation on fresh 11 tomatoes from Mexico will be likely to lead to continuation 12 or recurrence of material injury within a reasonable 13 foreseeable time. 14 Schedule setting forth the presentation of this 15 hearing, notice of investigation and transcript order forms 16 are available at the public distribution table. All 17 prepared testimony should be given to the Secretary. Please 18 do not place testimony directly on the public distribution 19 table. 20 All witnesses must be sworn in by the Secretary 21 before presenting testimony. I understand that parties are 22 aware of the time allocations. Any questions regarding the 23 time allocations should be directed to the Secretary. 24 Speakers are reminded to not refer in their remarks or 25 answers to questions to business proprietary information. Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 9 1 Please speak clearly into the microphone and 2 state your name for the record for the benefit of the court 3 reporter. If you will be submitting documents that contain 4 information you wish classified as business confidential 5 your request should comply with Commission Rule 201.6. 6 Mr. Secretary, are there any preliminary matters? 7 MR. BURCH: Mr. Chairman, there are preliminary 8 matters. With your permission, the Petitioner and 9 Respondents would like to add a witness. For the Petitioner 10 Aris Pappas, Chief Operating Officer with Pete Pappas and 11 Sons Inc. For the Respondents, Martin Ley, President of 12 Fresh Evolution. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMSON: Okay, thank you. That 14 may be added. Very well, let us begin with opening remarks. 15 MR. BURCH: Opening remarks in support of the 16 Continuation of Order will be given by Mary Jane Alves of 17 Cassidy Levy Kent. Ms. Alves, you have five minutes. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMSON: Welcome, Ms. Alves. 19 You may begin when you are ready. 20 OPENING STATEMENT OF MARY JANE ALVES 21 MS. ALVES: Good morning, Commissioner 22 Williamson. For the record, my name is Mary Jane Alves. 23 Together with my colleagues from Cassidy Levy Kent we 24 represent the Florida Tomato Exchange, an association of 25 domestic growers and packers of fresh tomatoes. Our Panel Ace-Federal Reporters, Inc. 202-347-3700 10 1 will explain why a negative determination in this review 2 will lead to the continuation or recurrence of material 3 injury to the Domestic Industry. 4 Fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico are 5 interchangeable with fresh tomatoes grown in the United 6 States. NatureSweet belatedly asked you to define the two 7 domestic like product in the industry, but the record shows 8 no clear line dividing the continuum of types and varieties 9 of fresh tomatoes grown in open fields and in protected 10 environments in the United States. 11 There is likely to be a significant volume of 12 fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico. The Mexican Industry's 13 capacity in production is substantial. Capacity in Mexico 14 far exceeds demand in Mexico and they are using only roughly 15 63 percent of that capacity. 16 As the largest exporter of fresh tomatoes in the 17 world, the Mexican Industry directs well over two-thirds of 18 its total shipments to exports. Given the perishable nature 19 of fresh tomatoes, it is not surprising that the vast 20 majority is shipped to the attractive, neighboring U.S. 21 Market. 22 Despite a series of suspension agreements, fresh 23 tomato imports displaced the U.S.