Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine

(Espacio Apícola, January 30th, 2024) Linked the inauguration of Donald Trump, once again as President of the United States, Jeremy Pelter took over as Acting Secretary of the Department of Commerce (DOC), replacing Gina Raimondo, who was the Secretary during the Joe Biden administration.

Raimondo, from a family of Italian immigrants, studied at La Salle Catholic school in Providence, graduated in Economics from Harvard, earned a doctorate in sociology from New College, Oxford, and completed a doctorate in law from Yale University. She left the governorship of Rhode Island on March 2nd, 2021, to take over as Secretary of the DOC the next day, about forty days after Biden's inauguration on January 20th, 2021.

After the election of Biden on November 3rd, 2020, news spread of the intention of two US beekeepers' associations to promote anti-dumping actions against honey from Argentina, Brazil, India, Ukraine, and Vietnam. This lawsuit was finally filed by the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA) and the Sioux Honey Association (SHA) with the new Secretary on April 21st, 2021 (Espacio Apícola 132).

When the Preliminary Determination was published on November 18th, 2022, all the alarms were raised in the Government of Vietnam and in the State of Indiana (USA), where the baking and sausage industry has a high consumption of cheap honey. After eleven months of analysis and debate that concluded with tariffs over 400% suggested on the Preliminary Determination for honey from Vietnam, on March 10th, 2022, less than a month before the Final Determination, the DOC officials held an online meeting, via Microsoft Teams, with officials from the Government of Vietnam, then there was a face-to-face meeting and a senator and congressman, both from the State of Indiana (USA), formally submitted a letter to Undersecretary Lago requesting the reduction of tariffs imposed on honey from Vietnam. On April 8th, at Final Determination time, the DOC reduced tariffs on honey from Vietnam from 414% to less than 62% (Espacio Apícola 135), forcing to a vision more focused on the competitiveness of Indiana manufacturing companies and their marketing than on the demands of the primary honey production sector.

Gina Raimondo's successor, Jeremy Pelter, who took over as Acting DOC Secretary on January 20th when the new president took office, is a native of Indiana and holds a degree in Political Science from Indiana University, with a Master's in Administration from the University of Maryland. He initially worked at the Small Business Administration agency, then joined the DOC where he has a distinguished administrative career working in different areas, including as a consultant, as senior advisor to the Under Secretary of Commerce, as Deputy Secretary of Industry and Security, and as Deputy Secretary of Administration.

Coincidentally, the previous lawsuit for dumping filed by the same two American beekeepers' associations against Argentine honey was initiated in 2000 under a Democrats' government (Bill Clinton) and its Final Determination was promulgated under the Republicans Government of George W. Bush in the second half of 2001 (Espacio Apícola 45, 46, 48 and 49 not available online yet). Shortly after, the tariffs were removed for Argentine companies as well as the Countervailing Duties imposed in parallel, but not for those from China companies investigated in the same instance.

In another order, after two years without publishing import alerts on products labeled as honey imported into the United States, this Monday the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) broke the silence by publishing an alert (36-04) on three cases of honey from Egypt imported into the United States with fluoroquinolone residues (two with SULFAMETHOXAZOLE and one with CIPROFLOXACIN); The immediately preceding case published was in February 2023 with a shipment of honey from Saudi Arabia with CIPROFLOXACIN residues. The period of silence strangely coincides with the insistence of the dumping Petitioners on the problem of honey adulteration in India as the cause of what they consider a Particular Market Situation (PMS). The last alert published regarding adulterated honey entering the United States (36-01) dates from December 26th, 2022. Perhaps this is an indication of a change of approach in this area as well.

Fernando Esteban