Apple Exports to Our Neighbors
From the Western Ag Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. About 30% of Washington's apple crop gets exported every year to other markets around the world.
Washington Apple Commission president, Michael Schadler says overall, some of the trade deals that have been announced, although not fully implemented yet, have been good for our industry …
SCHADLER … “Taiwan, Indonesia. I mean we’ve got a 20% tariff in Taiwan, our third biggest export market, and that is slated to go to zero. So, that will be a nice boost if and when that actually gets implemented.”
And while that’s good news, I asked Schadler, what about our neighbors here in North America? …
SCHADLER … “I mean I should have started closer to home. I mean Mexico and Canada are our two most important markets. There’s actually an anti-dumping case against U.S. apples from Mexico and that seems to be a little bit politically motivated, and it’s just all tied into this geopolitical environment in which we find ourselves where there’s a lot of tension around trade and it’s just the new paradigm that we’re dealing with when it comes to trade.”
But Schadler says, fingers crossed, there’s still hope we can get past that …
SCHADLER … “USMCA, which is the free trade agreement that’s kind of NAFTA 2.0, is being reviewed this year and we certainly hope that we can maintain a level of free trade with Canada and Mexico because those two markets, especially Mexico are incredibly crucial to us. 12% of the Washington apple crop gets shipped to Mexico each year, which is over 40% of all of our exports. So, Mexico alone is crucial.”
Again, that’s Michael Schadler, president of the Washington Apple Commission.
