As India raises its Tariff's, Washington Apple Industry is in a Big Trouble

June 20,2019:

Export-dependent Washington State Apple industry is in a trouble after India hiked duties on fruit.

Source stated that, it is “very hard” to sell products to other markets when “you lose a reliable and established market”.

India announced a hike in customs duties on as many as 28 US products, including almond, apple, pulses and walnut, in response to higher tariffs imposed by Washington on Indian products like steel and aluminium.

India imported a record 7.8 million 40-pound boxes of fine quality 2017 Washington state apple crop as of mid-June last year.

India would ultimately pass Canada as Washington’s No. 2 export market, reaching 8 million boxes by the season’s end, it said. Currently, Mexico is the No. 1 export market.

India had imported far fewer boxes of the 2018 crop. As of June 15, Washington state had shipped about 2.6 million boxes to India.

It is expected to slow down even more with India slapping a 20 per cent retaliatory tariff on apples, bringing the total duty to 70 per cent, the report said.

Mark Powers, President of the Northwest Horticultural Council, which represents the region’s tree fruit industry in public policy issues, last week discussed several key issues with the Trump administration in Washington DC, including the US trade dispute with India.

President Trump is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan next week.

China, which has a large population, could have been another destination, had it not been involved in a trade war with the US, too,.

If the industry is not able to find alternative export markets, those apples could end up in the domestic market and depress prices for all growers.

Source HT