Trade Progress

The trade mission to India earlier this month to market Washington foods marked the first time a Washington Governor has led a trade delegation to India. Washington State Department of Agriculture Director Dan Newhouse, who was also a member of the trade delegation, talks about some of the issues surrounding trade with India.

NEWHOUSE: We all think of India as a huge amount of potential for agricultural exports, but there’s some obstacles, there’s some complications that tell me that we’re going to see a little time before all of that comes to reality. India has a lot of tariffs on agricultural products. For instance apples have a 50% tariff, wine tariffs range from 150 to 300%, and then there’s other duties that can be applied as well.

Still, Newhouse says there are opportunities there for Washington ag products.

NEWHOUSE: One of the interesting things that’s working in our favor there is that food is increasing at cost of about 12% every year. I think almost 80% of Indians, most of their income goes towards food, that’s becoming a huge problem as they deal with how they feed that many people. So actions the government takes to bring down the cost of food are going to be more critical in the future, and I think that’s where being there at this particular time, with that kind of dynamic, we will be positioned quite well when things change and exports are easier to get into the country.

The Washington Trade Delegation also visited Korea on this trip. Tomorrow Newhouse talks more about Korean trade and this year’s new U.S./Korea Free Trade Agreement.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.