Photograph Source: DHSgov – Public Domain

President Donald Trump’s decision to delay for 30 days the implementation of tariffs on Mexican products averted higher costs for the legions of football fans gearing up for Superbowl Sunday. As is the ritual now, many pass the day drinking beer or other spirits and gobbling down guacamole and tortilla chips. Mexican suds and avocados are a vital part of this ritualistic day of feast and fun. On Superbowl Sunday and the rest of the year, the U.S. is by far the biggest market for exported Mexican avocados, the primary ingredient of guacamole.

Cited in the Mexican daily La Jornada, the Association of Avocado Packers and Exporters of Mexico reported about 110,000 tons of avocados, or more than 250 million of the fleshy fruits, were shipped to El Norte during the month of January in anticipation of Superbowl Sunday gluttony. For now, U.S. guacamole lovers won’t feel pain in their pockets from higher prices resulting from tariffs.

But the Mexican avocado export business denotes a much deeper problem, an environmental one of far-reaching magnitude. Currently, avocado production in Mexico is the subject of complaints filed by Mexican citizens in the Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). The CEC is a trinational agency founded as part of the side agreement to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. The CEC was essentially renewed in the 2020 free trade successor ageement to NAFTA approved by the three member governments.

Overseen by the senior environmental officials of the U.S., Mexico and Canada, CEC staff receive citizen submissions that allege violations of environmental laws of a given member nation.

If a complaint is not dismissed, CEC staff roll up their sleeves and compile a comprehensive report on the legal and environmental facts of the allegation for approval by the three top environmental officials of the member nations. This........

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