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Tomato War
Graham also decried an International Trade Commission report that concluded NAFTA hasn't hurt Florida tomato and bell pepper growers. The ITC, Graham says, placed little emphasis on the crop years 1995 and 1996, which show more clearly the effects of NAFTA's 1993 passage.
Graham vowed to bring the matter up before Congress this fall. In his letter to the president, he notes that farmers expect to plant 25% fewer acres this year. That decline would come on top of large reductions in acreage planted the past two years and could throw 36,000 farm workers - mostly migrants - out of work.
Graham advocates "harmonizing" grade and quality standards for vegetables and requiring country-of-origin markings on all winter vegetables. He'd also like to see the government buy U.S. tomatoes for school lunch programs and the military. In addition, Graham is asking Clinton to have the National Economic Council study the conditions of the U.S. tomato and bell pepper industry and report its findings.
Many experts think NAFTA is just a scapegoat for the plight of Florida farmers, however. They point to the devalued Mexican peso, which has made the imported tomatoes much less expensive than the domestic variety. They also point to improved technology on Mexican farms, which has resulted in vastly improved production [FT, August 1995].
Whatever the cause, Florida's winter vegetable farmers are suffering. Since the Mexican peso was devalued in December 1994, Mexican farmers have flooded the U.S. with what Graham terms "a massive oversupply" of winter tomatoes.
The state Dept. of Agriculture reports planted tomato acreage in Dade was down 16% last winter. Acreage dropped 26% on Florida's east coast and by 8.4% in the Ruskin area. Worse, the volume of tomatoes shipped outside the state was off 23.4%. Other crops were off as well: cucumbers down 15%, eggplant 25%, green beans 26% and sweet corn 12%. The total value of Florida's tomato harvest has declined from $624 million in 1993 to about $461 million in 1995, and the estimate for 1996 is less than $400 million.
Kimberly James, a spokesperson for Graham, says the senator hasn't received a written response from the White House, but the lines of communication are open.
CoreStates' New Presence In Miami
CoreStates Bank of Philadelphia, the nation's 21st largest bank, is setting out to prove that you don't have to be in Miami's downtown or Brickell Avenue corridor to do international banking in the city.
In August, CoreStates opened an Edge Act office at the Waterford office complex on Blue Lagoon Drive near Miami International Airport. Edge offices (named after the U.S. senator who sponsored the 1919 law permitting them) can accept deposits from non-U.S. residents and make loans involving international business to U.S. and non-U.S. customers.
Carlos Perez, senior vice president, international, and manager of CoreStates' Americas Group, says his bank picked the site near the airport because of its proximity to the numerous multinational corporations that have sales offices in that neighborhood or in nearby Coral Gables.
Perez says the Miami office will be CoreStates' booking unit for its growing trade finance business involving Latin America. He adds that it doesn't need the trappings of a Brickell office "because we doubt that we will do private banking from Miami." CoreStates is hoping to add Florida-based companies to a client list laden with firms from around the United States. According to reports banks file with regulators, it ranked seventh last year among U.S. banks in issuing letters of credit. CoreStates, with total assets of $44 billion, has offices in almost 30 countries, including six in Latin America.
CoreStates' opening of an Edge Act office also is a trend-bucking move. For several decades, major U.S. banks saw Edge offices as a backdoor entry to Florida, as well as a way to do international business. In the late 1970s, more than 20 U.S. banks had Edges in Miami. But the strategy lost some luster after it became permissible for banks from other states to buy domestic banks and S&Ls in Florida. Since the late 1980s, many Edge offices have closed.
CoreStates' arrival raises the number of U.S.-owned Miami Edge offices to eight. The setup is fine for CoreStates, says Perez, who emphasizes that the bank has no immediate Miami plans beyond trade, trade and more trade. - Jim Freer
Florida-Made Exports Grow 4.3% In First Half
Sales of exports grown, mined or manufactured in Florida totaled more than $12.3 billion in the first half of 1996, up 4.3% from the same period in 1995. Among the nations of the world, Brazil continued as the top customer for Florida-origin exports, buying about $1.1 billion of such goods during the first six months of the year, up 1.4% from the previous year. Canada was the second-largest buyer of Florida-origin exports during the six-month period, followed by Colombia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
During the first half, the biggest-selling category of Florida-origin exports was industrial machinery/computers - $2.5 billion, up 16.8% - followed by electronic equipment, transportation equipment, chemicals and instruments.
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
