Agreeing to take another look at the antidumping suspension agreement on fresh tomatoes imported from Mexico, the U.S. Department of Commerce said the agency it will take comments until Sept. 4 on the pact that has governed the price of imported Mexican tomatoes since 1996.

The Commerce Department’s review falls short of what some U.S. tomato interests had wanted. An outright termination of the suspension agreement had been sought by Florida tomato interests and others who say they have been subject to unfair trade practices from Mexican tomato exporters for years.

 “It’s unfortunate the Department of Commerce has departed from their traditional position of accepting a petitioner’s request to withdraw from dumping cases,” said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Maitland-based Florida Tomato Exchange, “We waited 60 days for Commerce to add another barrier into the process for the domestic tomato industry in this country,” Brown said.

While not specifically addressing the prospects for a new dumping investigation into Mexican tomatoes, Brown said U.S. tomato leaders are committed to protecting the right to use U.S. trade law to safeguard against what it calls unfair trade practices.

“We will continue that effort,” he said.

Mexican tomato interests said they fear the Commerce Department may be influenced by election-year politics.

“Special interest groups are using election-year politics to try to start a trade war that will disrupt a 16-year track record of success for bringing fair prices to consumers and healthy variety to family dinner tables,” Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, said in a news release. “In this economy, the last thing we need is a trade war with our second-largest trading partner that hits American families in the pocketbook.”

According to the Department of Commerce, the suspension agreement covers more than 85% of the Mexico’s tomato shipments to the U.S.