Ports Open & Wage Hike
Ports Open & Wage Hike. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.
India has reopened all ports to apple imports for not only the U.S. but all apple exporters. The Indian government closed all but one of the ports in September. Chris Schlect with the NW Hort Council says this is really good news for producers.
SCHLECT: They had shut down their apple imports to one port of entry, an ocean port and obviously India is a large and major population center and has many different ocean ports so getting this back open should facilitate trade and is good news. The apple exporting countries of the world protested, pointed out that this was a violation of the World Trade Organization rules and they had a lawsuit brought by their own importers
Oregon is exploring the possibility of hiking the minimum wage to as much as $15 an hour since many of Idaho's communities just across the border are dependent on ag and the Oregon government wants to remain competitive. Oregon's minimum wage is $7.25 which is $2 more an hour than Idaho's. Governor Kate Brown is looking to hike that to $9.25 over the next 6 years to make Oregon workers more competitive.
That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.
