Tariffs stopped many Washington apples from reaching India. Lawmakers want to fix that

The Northwest ships many of its apple harvest to India, including boat loads of red delicious apples.

But retaliatory tariffs put in place in 2019 are taking a bite out of the valuable market. Now, Washington's full congressional delegation is asking the federal government for help.

This week, the entire Washington Congressional delegation — about a dozen politicians spanning Democrat Senator Maria Cantwell to Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse — requested help from the U.S. Trade Representative and the Secretary of Commerce to help remove Indian tariffs on U.S. apples.

India has been one of the largest export markets for Northwest growers for decades. In 2017, Washington apple exports hit a high of $120 million. But a steel and aluminum tariff, slapped on India by the Trump Administration in 2018, caused the Indian government to put an additional 20% tax on U.S. apple imports. That sliced the Northwest apple exports to India down to just $3 million.