Apples and Trade Pt 2

Apples and Trade Pt 2

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. If retaliatory tariffs would just go away and trade negotiations would wrap up in a favorable fashion, nobody would be more appreciative than Washington's heavily trade-dependent apple growers.

Meanwhile, Washington Apple Commission president Todd Fryhover says other producers are making inroads to our markets ...

FRYHOVER ... "Our friends in Europe are also going into Canada. They're also going into the United States on the east coast and there is a free trade agreement in place between the EU and Mexico. Now they haven't developed the phytosanitary protocol to be able to ship, but they will. The ocean freight from Europe into Mexico is around $3 or $4 per carton. They'll be very competitive in our number one export market very soon."

Fryhover says even our pending trade deals have dark clouds overhead ...

FRYHOVER ... "USMCA is signed, but still we have to have Congressional approval. That is not a foregone conclusion. I would also indicate that the release of the 232 tariffs and the signing of USMCA are not connected. They're totally separate so if you think that USMCA being signed and the elimination of the duties are one and the same, they are not."

And, he says we're missing out with our former Pacific Rim trading partners ...

FRYHOVER ... "Lost opportunities, we are not a part of TPP. There's preferential trade agreements and duties that are between these countries that do not exist for us."

Until then, Fryhover says they'll make good use of the $8.5 million dollars recently provided through the USDA's

Agricultural Trade Promotion Program to foster better trade relationships.

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