Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from producer Ben Johansen. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren President JOE BIDEN’s favorite comfort food is pasta with red sauce. The guy can’t live without it. But his administration is weighing a difficult decision that could have an impact not only on his beloved dish, but his reelection bid. It all centers around tomatoes. The U.S. imports a lot of them, many of which are grown in Mexico and delivered to Arizona for distribution to grocery stores across the U.S. Arizona’s status as a key tomato gateway has become an important part of the state’s economy. But it’s created tension with Florida. The state is one of the biggest domestic producers of tomatoes but it has seen its percentage of the U.S. tomato market decline over recent years. Fed up Florida tomato growers are asking the Biden administration to do away with the Tomato Suspension Agreement. The obscure trade agreement, which has been in place in various forms for nearly 30 years, was intended to ensure that tomato imports from Mexico don’t drive down the sale price of tomatoes produced in Florida, especially since production seasons for both overlap. Florida growers argue that the TSA isn’t working and it’s time to impose duties or tariffs on Mexican-grown tomatoes. To be fair, Florida growers have complained about the TSA since it was implemented in the 1990s and they frequently urged the Commerce Department to make revisions to the agreement. For the most part, the Commerce Department has acquiesced to their requests. No administration, Democrat or Republican, was eager to get on the wrong side of politically powerful farming groups in one of the nation’s most politically consequential swing states. But Florida’s political heft has changed as it’s become a more reliably red state. At the same time, Arizona has become more politically relevant following Biden’s narrow victory there in 2020. The shifting political landscape has created a unique dynamic for the Biden administration as it reviews Florida tomato growers’ request to do away with the TSA entirely. The comment review period on whether or not to act on that request ended Monday, and the Commerce Department is expected to make a decision in the coming months — just before the 2024 reelection. Arizona lawmakers and trade groups are ramping up the pressure on the Biden administration. Arizona Sens. KYRSTEN SINEMA, an independent, and Democrat MARK KELLY headlined a letter from 34 members of Congress last month calling on Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO to uphold the TSA. “Multiple industries have grown to supply, and grown to depend on, year-round access to tomatoes and other fresh produce, and our constituents benefit from the hard-working grocers, restaurant staff, truckers, warehouse operators, and others that move and sell fresh produce,” they wrote. Arizona Gov. KATIE HOBBS (D) also sent her own letter to Raimondo. “I was shocked this time that both Senate offices in Arizona got into this thing. So it’s clearly important to Arizona voters,” said TIMOTHY RICHARDS, an agricultural economist at Arizona State University. “It is a multibillion dollar industry in Arizona — just like it is in Florida. So it pits two very politically contentious states against each other.” Arizona lawmakers and trade groups also argue that doing away with TSA would cost their state billions of dollars and lead to a loss in jobs, as well as result in increased produce prices across the country at a time when the president is already struggling to shake inflation. “You would see restaurants slice their tomatoes a little thinner, or rather than putting three tomatoes on a six-inch sandwich, they’d put just two tomato slices. The consumer loses,” said LANCE JUNGMEYER, president of the Fresh Produce Association of America, a pro-import trade association based in Nogales, Ariz. Not only would tomato prices increase for U.S. consumers, they’d also be left with a worse product, Jungmeyer added. Florida tomatoes, he argued, just don’t have the same “pop” and “acid to sugar ratio” compared to imported Mexican tomatoes. Nogales Mayor JORGE MALDONADO has worked in the produce business for more than 40 years. He said if the Commerce Department ended the TSA, not only would the White House have to start paying more for Biden’s pasta sauce, but that the president could “kiss Arizona goodbye” in 2024. “The removal of the suspension agreement would be a big factor in the political measures of Arizona and the whole country,” he warned Biden. “It will come back and haunt you.” MESSAGE US — Are you JEREMY KREISBERG, White House associate counsel? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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