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Friday, September 6, 2019 CapitalPress.com Latest Chinese tariff increases further cloud U.S. exports By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WENATCHEE, Wash. — China unleashed a new round of tariffs on U.S. goods Sept. 1, including an additional 10% on apples, pears and cherries for a total of 60%. Within the tree fruit industry there’s uncer- tainty and mixed reactions about what this means, par- ticularly because it might be moot if China’s private company importers fol- low the government’s Aug. 6 directive to government importers banning all U.S. agricultural goods. Desmond O’Rourke, retired Washington State University agricultural economist, says direct apple exports to China will be dead this winter. Some product may make it into China through Hong Kong and Vietnam, depending on the severity of Chinese cus- toms enforcement, he said. O’Rourke is a world apple market analyst who has studied China and has warned it would not be a reliable market. “All big companies in Hong Kong are under tre- mendous pressure to say nothing critical of the gov- ernment, so importers won’t go against the gov- ernment,” O’Rourke said. The CEO of Cathay Pacific, an airline head- quartered in Hong Kong, resigned under government threat after saying protest- ers had a right to speak freely, he said. “The bigger issue is not the specific tariff on apples but the potential for break- down of the entire U.S.- China economic relation- ship,” O’Rourke said. Toni Adams, Wash- ington Apple Commis- sion spokeswoman in Wenatchee, is more opti- mistic, noting that even with a 50% tariff more than 900,000, 40-pound boxes of Washington apples were Dan Wheat/Capital Press Francisco Gutiera, left, carefully dumps his picker bag of Gala apples with the help of Ray Diaz as harvest starts at Mt. View Orchard, East Wenatchee, Wash., on Aug. 26. Higher Chinese tariffs make exports to that nation uncertain. imported by China during the 2018-19 sales season now ending. Sales to China typically start in November and are heaviest through February. “Washington apples have retail presence as a product. Chinese consum- ers expect it to be on the shelves. Strong demand even in the face of steep retaliatory tariffs pro- vides optimism that ship- ments will continue in the 2019-20 season,” Adams said. China has been willing to pay good prices for qual- ity fruit, making it a value market improving grower returns, she said. Tom Riggan, gen- eral manager of Chelan Fresh Marketing, a major exporter, said exports to China will be affected by any increase in tariffs but will continue because importers will buy “based on consumer demand regardless of any ban.” He said he remains hope- ful the trade dispute will end soon. Mark Powers, president of Northwest Horticultural Council in Yakima, said the situation remains uncer- tain and that while he sus- pects there will be some shipments to China this sea- son it won’t be as much as growers need. Jim Bair, president and CEO of U.S. Apple Asso- ciation in Falls Church, Va., said the new round of tariffs only adds more uncertainty. Total U.S. apple exports were down 27% by volume and their value dropped 22% from $1.1 billion to $854 million in the 2018-19 sales season because of tar- iffs and trade tensions, Bair said. “As tariffs pile up, we’re watching what was an emerging market (China) diminish,” he said. With the 2019 harvest expected to be the ninth largest in history, it is “criti- cal to mend fences with our trading partners as soon as possible,” Bair said. Washington apple exports to China reached 1.7 million boxes in 2017. The industry once figured it could grow to a 10 mil- lion-box market worth about $250 million. China is Washington’s sixth largest apple export market, representing about 3% of the total. An Aug. 28 USDA Global Agricultural Infor- mation Network report lists the Sept. 1 China tar- iff increases on more than 1,000 U.S. items. Cherry exports are fin- ished for the year and U.S. pears have a small mar- ket in China. Tariffs on peaches, plums, apricots and almonds also went up 10 percentage points to a new total of 60%. A lot of meats went up to new totals of 40-60% and vegetables to new totals of 20-50%. 3 Plan to remove gravel from Pistol River denied By GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press GOLD BEACH, Ore. — The Curry County Planning Commission has rejected a local rancher’s proposal to remove 10,000 cubic yards of gravel from the lower Pis- tol River in southwest Oregon to stop flooding and erosion of surrounding farmland. Ronald Adams applied for a conditional use permit in May to mine gravel from the coastal river, which provides essential habitat for threatened coho salmon. Opponents argued Adams did not include sufficient details about the project or its impact on the environment, and the planning commission voted to deny his application Aug. 15. The decision will be final- ized at the next planning com- mission meeting Sept. 19. Adams said he plans to appeal. Adams, 68, owns 117 acres of cattle pasture on both sides of the river near Gold Beach. He said the waterway “has been in disarray for many years” due to gravel washing downstream from the headwa- ters in the Rogue River-Siski- you National Forest. Not only is erosion threat- ening landowners’ property, but Adams said debris backed up underneath the Pistol River Bridge could result in costly damage as floodwaters rise. “My neighbors on the south side of the river are going to lose all their bottomland if we don’t do anything about it,” Adams said. “Plus the water is not going to be able to flow under the bridge.” Gravel mining has a long history in the Pistol River. His- torically, gravel was extracted from the river and used for road projects — including construction of Highway 101, according to the planning commission staff report. The same site was also approved to extract 50,000 cubic yards of gravel annu- ally in 2003, though county approval was revoked two years later over tangles with state and federal permits. The Pistol River is desig- nated as essential salmon hab- itat by the Oregon Department of State Lands, which regu- lates in-stream work. Bob Lob- dell, a natural resources coor- dinator for the state agency in Coos and Curry counties, said there has not been a new gravel removal permit issued on the Pistol River for at least 10 years. Cameron La Follette, exec- utive director of the Oregon Coast Alliance, said gravel is an important aquatic resource for salmon, providing spawn- ing habitat for adults and rear- ing habitat for juveniles. Adams’ plan did not include any information about the state of the Pistol River, La Follette said, or what kind of impact removing gravel would have on fish, vegetation and soil erosion. “It isn’t wise to just go in and start mining gravel with- out knowing what the effects are going to be,” La Follette said. “A river is a sensitive system.” What the Pistol River really needs, La Follette said, is for landowners and resto- ration specialists to collabo- rate and start seriously work- ing on how the make the river healthier for everyone who depends on it, including farms and fish. The U.S. Forest Service last conducted a watershed analysis for the Pistol River in 1998, showing degradation from both natural processes and human activity, such as building roads and logging. Figures cited in the analysis estimated that roads produced 32 times the amount of river sediment compared to undis- turbed forestland, and logging increased sedimentation rates by 2.8 times. The Pistol River Watershed Council wrote an action plan for the watershed in 2001, sug- gesting wetlands restoration, planting new riparian vegeta- tion and road surveys, among other items, to make the river system healthier. “Both of those (were writ- ten) a long time ago,” La Fol- lette said. “The first order of business would be looking at any updating needs.” Washington works on OT rules For once, the Washing- ton Farm Bureau isn’t sure what to say about a new rule proposed by a state agency. The Department of Labor and Industries plans to make more workers eligi- ble for overtime pay. Agri- cultural employers could be affected, depending on how the state Supreme Court decides a lawsuit, Marti- nez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Brothers Dairy. The lawsuit challenges agriculture’s exemption from paying time-and-a-half for hours worked beyond 40 in a week. The exemption applies to farm managers, as well as field workers. The court will hear the case Oct. 24. The comment period for L&I’s proposal closes Sept. 6. “It puts us in a pickle,” Washington Farm Bureau associate director of gov- ernment relations Bre Elsey said. “If we knew we were going to lose the DeRuy- ter case, we’d be in vocal opposition.” The rule will dictate who can and who can’t be paid a flat salary, regardless of hours worked. Currently, Washing- ton follows the federal stan- dard. A salaried worker must be paid at least $455 a week, or $23,660 a year. The Trump administra- tion has proposed raising the threshold to $35,308 a year. L&I proposes to go higher and set the threshold at 2.5 times the state’s minimum wage. Employers must fol- low the law most favorable to workers. The increase would be phased in over six years. By 2026, L&I projects that any- one paid less than $79,872 a year — $1,536 a week — would have to be paid for overtime. The thresh- old would rise annually with inflation. The overtime requirement would apply to part owners, if they own less than 20% of the business. “It’s an overreach, and we’re opposed to it,” Wash- ington State Dairy Feder- ation labor policy analyst Scott Dilley said. “This is going to have a tremendous impact on all industries.” L&I has projected the new threshold would affect 250,000 workers by 2026. But the agency says it doesn’t have enough information to make some projections. “Some small businesses may face higher costs because of this rule making, but there is no data indicating the magnitude of this cost,” according to an agency eco- nomic analysis. According to L&I, the overtime rule has two pur- poses: protect employees from being overworked and encourage employers to hire more workers. L&I said it doesn’t know of any studies to indi- cate how employers will respond. Some may elimi- nate overtime and may hire more workers, but some may “spread the work to exist- ing employees to replace the lost hours,” according to the analysis. “Because of the lack of data, L&I cannot estimate how many jobs will be cre- ated due to the proposed rule,” the analysis states. Elsey and Dilley said it’s unknown how many agri- cultural employees could be affected. In analyzing the rule, L&I put agriculture, forestry, fish- ing and hunting into one cat- egory. The agency reported that 7,208 businesses in that category employed 122,097 workers and that 165 would be affected by the rule. “I think that’s low,” Dil- ley said. “Farms are going to want to look at the rules and make sure they’re following the exemptions.” FREE STANDING PANELS The Last Panel You Will EVER Need To Buy! 24 Ft Long HEAVY DUTY • STANDARD 4-ROD -$400 • DELUXE 5-ROD -$435 • STANDARD PANEL W/GATE -$435 • DELUXE PANEL W/GATE -$470 Easy To Move Around with a Loader Tractor or Skid Steer • CORRALS • FEEDLOTS • SHIPPING PENS • ARENAS • SORTING ALLEYS • CALVING FACILITIES 36-4/104 Call Bart Spear Today! 13-2/108 By DON JENKINS Capital Press www.spearranch.com LOOMIS, WA
