Trade Talks with Newhouse Pt 2
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. As trade negotiations continue, many questions remain unanswered for Washington state and other northwest growers. U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says trade with China and other nations is key to Washington and he's been talking with trade negotiators to make sure they understand ...NEWHOUSE ... "This is not easy stuff, you know, negotiating with China is difficult, but there's a lot of potential for our producers, if we can level that playing field. A lot of positive things can happen there."
And, Newhouse says better sooner than later ...
NEWHOUSE ... "But, everyone recognizes that spring is coming, we going to have, potentially, a larger apple crop this year than we had last year and those key markets have got to be open for us. And we'll keep explaining that and making our case to the administration that we need to get this done as quickly as possible."
Newhouse says the challenges have become much greater for northwest growers without agreements like TPP and NAFTA ...
NEWHOUSE ... "What most people understand and what I certainly saw first-hand when I was Director of Agriculture and worked hard to develop and open new markets was it's a very competitive marketplace out there. There's a lot of other countries that produce some of the same products we do. We certainly are very proud of the quality that we have in the state of Washington, but if we can't provide the product other countries will. And it's not easy to regain those markets if you lose them."
Newhouse encourages all ag groups to stay engaged and help make the case for eliminating trade barriers.