01/06/05 Apple tariffs gone, but...

01/06/05 Apple tariffs gone, but...

The good news is Mexico has finally agreed to end its almost two years of over forty six per cent tariffs on Red and Golden Delicious apple imports from the U.S. Now the agreement only applies to members of Northwest Fruit Exporters, but that means most of the major exporters from the Northwest states. But Jim Archer of Northwest Fruit Exporters says there are still some fine print matters in the agreement that has the Northwest apple industry concerned. For one, the agreement does not take effect until March. Archer says that is a disappointment from the standpoint of two months of lost market opportunities. ARCHER: I think we could have expected somewhere around maybe two million cartons to be shipped during this two month period had the agreement been implemented immediately, but our shipments on the last few weeks have been running on the average of ninety thousand cartons per week so it's a substantial difference. And on top of that, an unrelated announcement from the Mexican government, one with no answers as to why, has Archer and others in concern. ARCHER: Just one day prior to publishing the price agreement on Reds and Goldens, the Mexican government published an announcement that the Port of Reynosa would close around January 27th for apple imports. And that's a major concern as well because the last two years about fifty per cent of the volume has flowed through that particular port of entry.
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