Political Quotes

“today is a very good day for one of Washington's most famous products; that is, Washington apples. And that is because retaliatory tariffs that had been put on Washington apples in India really impacted our growers across Washington State. I want to thank Ambassador Tai, and I want to thank the Biden administration--Secretary Raimondo especially--and I also want to thank Ambassador Garcetti for making sure that, in the negotiations leading up to today's visit by Prime Minister Modi and discussions between the United States and India, removing these retaliatory tariffs on apples was included on the list. So, today, our growers know that they can go back to marketing a great worldwide product, our Washington apples, that had access to what at one point was a $120 million market. This retaliatory tariff being removed will help boost sales to India. It will help the bottom line of farmers in Washington State, and it will be essential for the 1,400 growers that I have just recently visited along with my colleague Senator Stabenow, in discussion of this year's farm bill, to say these are important markets for Washington products. We heard from people like Jorge Sanchez from Northern Fruit in East Wenatchee that ``India was a critical market for the Washington apple industry, and the tariffs have hit the producers of Red Delicious apples especially hard.'' These growers are looking forward to an opportunity to rebuild this market access.…”