Experts and Elected Officials weigh in on tariff impact to agricultural product exports

YAKIMA, Wash. — Apple harvest season will begin in the near future, and historically, about 30 percent of the apples grown in the state are exported to another country. Some trade agreements could see change this year due to various tariffs, however Riley Bushue, the Vice President of the Northwest Horticultural Council, thinks they will remain largely the same.

“Exports are important to what our industry does,” Bushue said. “We ship to 40 some countries around the world, and I don’t see necessarily changing in the short term.”

Members of the House Agriculture Committee are trying to make sure agricultural products are exported successfully and fairly.

Congressman Dan Newhouse (R-WA) believes that the tariffs can be beneficial for the industry.

“The goal is to open up accessibility,” Newhouse said. “That is exactly what the administration is working towards as well. We’re hopeful for some really good deals coming up soon.”

That’s a take that Governor Bob Ferguson disagrees with.

“The tariffs are a huge challenge for our state in general, but especially with the ag community,” Governor Ferguson said. “We’ve already seen numbers, for example, agricultural exports to China being down like 36 percent this last May compared to the year before.”

China is only one market, and Bushue has seen different results due to tariffs in other countries.

“We’ve seen positive things already. Take Vietnam for example, we’re currently the only major supplier of apples to Vietnam that pays a tariff. Everybody else has a free trade agreement,” Bushue said. “The announcement that they’re going to bring their tariff down to zero, that’s welcome news.”

Those are two examples of markets with visible changes to international trade policy, but Bushue expects more to come.

“We’re focused on Japan, we’re focused on Korea, there’s more to come for India there’s opportunity in Australia, Vietnam is another one, so we’re starting to see some of those things,” Bushue said. “But again, some of these issues have been running for decades, it takes more than a few weeks obviously to get this stuff put together.”

Tariffs and trade are not the only issue on farmers’ minds. At a listening session with Representative Newhouse on Wednesday, one farmer asked what the solutions are to the issue that farming isn’t profitable.

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