Washington is one of the best places in the nation to grow fruits and vegetables. But as if Mother Nature’s fickle weather isn’t enough of a challenge, farmers throughout the state face at least two man-caused barriers to producing, selling and exporting agricultural products.
One problem is relatively short-term and could be settled in the next year or so by the federal government. In 2009, Mexico imposed a series of retaliatory tariffs on American exports when Congress stopped a pilot program that allowed Mexican trucks to travel into the United States.
The other problem is a long-term state issue that will take years to solve. The state minimum wage (highest in the nation) puts Washington farmers at a decided disadvantage competing against other states and nations.
As for the first obstacle, a long-overdue, positive light fell upon the Mexican tariffs issue last week. As the Tri-City Herald reported, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood proposed a phased plan that would allow cross-border, long-haul trucking between the United States and Mexico. Both nations would focus on safety standards, vehicle emissions and other concerns that led Congress to drop the pilot program. Presumably, this would encourage Mexico to drop its retaliatory tariffs and re-open the full market for U.S. exports.
Three of our state’s Congressional members — Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Republican U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings — have done a good job applying pressure on LaHood to solve this problem. New U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, is urged to help intensify the state’s pressure on LaHood so that officials for both nations can strengthen the two economies.
Hastings called LaHood’s proposal “the first encouraging news I’ve heard from this administration since these tariffs were imposed nearly two years ago.” Murray said, “Now that (LaHood’s) proposal has been put forward, I am strongly urging the Mexican government to end their harmful tariffs immediately.”
The unfairness to Washington farmers is stark: They are being punished for a binational trucking dispute, one that should and must be resolved by neighbor countries that are highly interdependent.
As the Herald reported, Mexico targeted 89 products for new tariffs in 2009, then added 10 more last year. Included are apples, potatoes, pears and cherries, costing the state’s farmers millions of dollars in lost exports. Complicating the dilemma is Mexico’s tinkering with details: The potato tariff was reduced last summer from 20 percent to 5 percent, but a 20 percent tariff was placed on apples.
The United States and Mexico should be bolstering each other’s competitive stance in the global economy. Fighting over trucks and tariffs is counter-productive.
As for the state-minimum-wage predicament, a Friday letter to the editor by Joe Beaudoin provided painful details. Beaudoin, the owner of Joe’s Place Farm in east Vancouver, wrote that thousands of acres of cabbage and cucumbers in the three West Coast states “now have no market because Wisconsin can grow these crops for $3 per hour less.” Also, American asparagus processors “have all moved to Peru. … We are gradually losing our Northwest pear industry (because) China can grow them, can them and ship them cheaper than we can.” Even more alarming: “China is now the world’s largest producer of cheap apples.”
Next time you wonder if our state’s minimum-wage problem is real, ask a farmer.
