Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine

(Espacio Apícola, April 4th, 2025 - corrected on Apr 08,2025)The President of the United States announced the imposition of general tariffs on all goods imported into his country, for almost every country in the world. The measure comes a week before the Final Determination of the First Administrative Review on the anti-dumping sanctions imposed by the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) on honey from Argentina, Brazil, India, and Vietnam. This also applies to all other products that were awaiting preliminary or final determinations in mid-December but, given the imminent change of regime in the White House, were also on hold due to three consecutive extensions, including one caused by a technical failure in the DOC's internet service.

Mexico and Canada were not included in the general tariffs enacted by President Trump, as the three North American countries are governed by a free trade agreement known by its acronym, the USMCA.

No general tariff was imposed this Wednesday on Cuba, Belarus, the Russian Federation, and North Korea. The general tariff was announced as reciprocal compensation for what the US government estimates to be the tariffs or barriers their products pay in each of the countries included in the rul. Most countries were imposed a 10% tariff; it could almost be considered a commission for entering the world's largest market, like a franchise, like someone paying the right to sell in a supermarket... Something similar to what happens with honey imported into the European Union, where, for decades, honey from most countries has been charged a 17.3% tariff.

CHANGES IN THE TRADE SCENARIO
We present this table for your consideration, which shows the range of anti-dumping tariffs requested by beekeepers from the Sioux Honey Association (Sue) and the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA) on April 21st, 2021 (Espacio Apícola 132), the Preliminarily Determination of the First Administrative Review on July 3rd, 2024, under the Biden administration, the general tariffs enacted by President Trump on Wednesday and, to complete the picture of the most demanding markets for honey, the tariffs governing honey imported into the European Union.

COUNTRY	RANGE OF DEMAND	1st REVISION PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION	GENERAL TARIFFS (TRUMP)	EU TARIFFS ON IMPORTED HONEY
ARGENTINA	17 a 23%	58%	10%	17,3%
BRAZIL	114%	2%	10%	17,3%
INDIA	34 a 99%	0%	26%	17,3%
VIETNAM	207%	120%	46%	0%*

In this context, it remains to be seen what the Final Determination of the First Administrative Review that the DOC has conducted over the past year is and how it will be applied based on the new general tariff that will take effect tomorrow, Saturday, April 5, 2025. According to the table presented by President Trump, in the cases of Argentina and Brazil, these countries presume a 10% charge on US products, so a dumping determination above that percentage could be added to the general tariff. Meanwhile, in the cases of India and Vietnam, President Trump presumes a charge on US products of double the imposed tariff, so only half of the difference above the assumed cost would be added. In the coming days, we will learn whether there is legislation or case law on this matter or how the DOC will ultimately present the Final Determination of this review. We also take this opportunity to present the general tariffs promulgated by the US president beside the EU tariffs on honey imports from other representative countries in this market or from our region.

COUNTRY	GENERAL TARIFFS (TRUMP)	EU TARIFFS ON IMPORTED HONEY
CAMBODIA	49%	0%*
CHILE	10%	0%*
CHINA	34%	17.3%
MEXICO	0%	8.6%*
UKRAINE	10%	17.3%*
URUGUAY	10%	17.3%

* The asterisks refer to free trade agreements such as the EU and Vietnam, or special regimes for promoting developing countries or other special regimes. This realignment is underway. Next week we will learn how the aforementioned Final Determination in the United States is resolved, and we will see if the European Union moves forward with any of its many treaties it has had in the works for many years, such as the treaty with Mercosur, which France and specifically the National Union of Beekeepers of France (UNAF) clearly oppose, while products seriously suspected of being fraudulent enter the European Union with insufficient authenticity controls and without any tariffs.

Fernando Esteban