d-January, Mexico asked for a panel to hear the dispute. Also pending is a dispute over whether to allow Mexican truckers past a narrow band inside the U.S. border a ban Mexico believes violates NAFTA. In late 1995, President Clinton indefinitely delayed a NAFTA rule allowing Mexican trucks to operate throughout the border states. A labor-environmental coalition organized by the Teamsters Union supports the delay, arguing that the Mexican trucks are not in compliance with safety and insurance requirements governing U.S. trucks. Some trade disputes, however, spill over beyond NAFTA. In February, Mexicos commerce ministry began to investigate the import of U.S. high fructose corn syrup to determine if the product is being dumped in Mexico at below-U.S.-prices and threatening damage to Mexicos sugar industry. Last year, Mexican tomato growers agreed to a compromise the U.S. Commerce Department assembled to end their export of low-priced winter tomatoes to the United States. The agreement, pushed by the Clinton administration, was in response to an antidumping complaint U.S. tomato growers filed against Mexican growers. The accord, which the Mexican government accepted reluctantly in order to keep its primary U.S. tomato market, allows continued shipments of Mexican tomatoes, but at a price acceptable to Florida growers. NAFTA observers smell politics in these disputes. The U.S. presidential and congressional elections were in full swing last year. In congressional elections this summer, Zedillos Institutional Revolutionary Party is expected to face a strong challenge to its 70-year-old control of the Mexican government. NAFTA is such a comprehensive agreement that any of these trade disputes could have been handled through NAFTA, but that takes time, said George Grayson, a NAFTA expert and professor of govemment at the College of William and Mary. So if you want Floridas 15 electoral votes, you try to change the rules on Mexican tomatoes....
