Tariffs dent Washington state’s massive exports

Agricultural producers in Washington, the most trade-dependent state, are being pressured by import tariffs imposed during the ongoing dispute between the United States and China.

Forty percent of the Pacific Northwest state’s jobs are dependent on global trade.

Overall, Washington state risks losing $650 million in agricultural exports as a result of retaliatory tariffs, according to the Washington Department of Agriculture. An estimated $480 million of that is from China alone.

A recent report indicated that between April and September, Washington farmers and other export-dependent producers saw foreign sales plummet by between 20 and 28 percent over the same period last year.

Washington growers of sweet cherries — a perishable product with a short harvest season (from June to early August) — already are indicating an estimated $86 million drop in sales this season.

The state has about 2,500 growers who produce more sweet cherries than any other region in the nation. China bought 12 percent of the Washington state cherry harvest last year but only 7 percent this year. Sales essentially stopped on July 6, when the 50 percent tariff took effect.

The Washington apple season runs from Sept 1 through Aug 31, and most of the state’s exports to China occur between October and March.

“Although we did see a decrease last season, because the tariffs were enacted later in the season, we are only now beginning to see the full impact on apple exports,” said Rebecca Lyons, international marketing director at the Washington Apple Commission. “Exports of Washington apples to China have decreased by 42 percent this season to date vs. last season (Sept 1-Oct 31). We anticipate that this decrease will continue through the remainder of the season so that we will only export roughly 600,000 40-pound cartons.”

Lyons expects the loss could be as high as $15 million in direct export sales. The apple growers also face a tariff in Mexico that is decreasing shipments by 30 to 50 percent.

The cranberry harvest has ended just in time for Thanksgiving, and Jack Stein in Grayland told local media that his crop this year was better than average. But international tariffs have him worried about the future.

“We just want to see fair trade,” said Stein, chair of the state’s cranberry commission, in a recent article by KING 5 News in Seattle.

Stein’s family has grown cranberries for 26 years, and Ocean Spray buys almost all of them. They’re either bagged, juiced, or turned into Craisins.

In July, China started charging a 40 percent tariff on Craisins and a 70 percent tariff on frozen cranberries.

Exports represent about 31 percent of annual US cranberry sales, according to the Cranberry Institute, a nonprofit industry group based in Massachusetts.

The Chinese market has grown over the last several years and takes about 7 percent of those exports, or about $45 million annually.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has determined that $111.5 million will be used to compensate cherry growers for lost business.

The money will come from $12 billion set aside for agriculture producers by the Trump administration, due to market disruptions from the current tariff standoff between the US and other countries around the world.

A New York Times report on Monday, citing the USDA, said that so far, only $838 million has been paid out to farmers since September, when the first $6 billion in the fund was released. The other $6 billion is expected to be made available in December.