Political Quotes

“H.R. 609 will help expand export markets for our Nation's pear growers. The Export Apple and Pear Act passed in 1933 required that apples and pears meet certain standards prior to export to ensure that only the top quality pears and apples were exported. The United States Department of Agriculture has stated that, because of private contractual arrangements between buyers and sellers, increasingly those arrangements are controlling the quality of U.S. pear exports. The USDA believes that mandatory Federal quality standards, as currently established under the act, are no longer needed to assure the high quality of exported pears. As new markets have opened up in the last decade, opportunities for sale of lower grade and less expensive pears have arisen. Because of the 1933 act, U.S. producers and exporters of pears have been unable to meet the demand for lower grade pears in other countries without receiving a waiver of the act from USDA.”