WA Wine and International Trade

From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. A group of 60-plus members of Congress are calling on the Administration for help expanding international markets for American wines.

U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says as the second largest wine producer, this is very important to the state of Washington …

NEWHOUSE … “A big part of our markets are those foreign destinations. And unfortunately, many of those countries have what I would call artificial trade barriers in place whether they’re tariffs or other kinds of barriers that make it more challenging for us to get our products into those markets.”

So, Newhouse says we could use a little help …

NEWHOUSE … “And we’re asking our Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, to work as hard as she can, put all her muscle behind opening those markets as much as possible so that we can have more success bringing our product into those necessary destinations.”

Wine production, Newhouse says is very competitive internationally … but …

NEWHOUSE … “We think, on the basis of quality, as Washington producers, we can compete with anybody unless there are some of these trade barriers that make it more difficult for us to be price competitive.”

Fair is fair, right? …

NEWHOUSE … “On a level playing field, we’re good. And that’s what we’re striving for and we’re just asking the Trade Rep to help us achieve that.”

U.S. wine production adds more than $170 billion annually to the national economy and supports 1.1 million jobs across the nation.

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In a letter to the Trade Representative … U.S. wine exports have seen an unfortunate decline in value over the last six years due to numerous factors including retaliatory tariffs and the coronavirus pandemic.

We recognize the administration is not pursuing traditional comprehensive market access agreements at this time but urge you to launch targeted efforts to address the competitive disadvantage faced by U.S. wine producers.