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Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, 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. This deal also includes removing some of the tariffs on chickpeas and lentils, also a great Washington product that suffered under these retaliatory tariffs. India was a top export market for U.S. chickpeas and lentils prior to the tariffs, and these important pulse crops are a very great product to see into the Indian market.

At its peak, the pulse crop value was over $180 million. And they, in the last year, with the retaliatory tariffs over the last 6 years, had dwindled down to next to nothing. That is why it was so important to speak directly to Prime Minister Modi, to ask him to consider more trade with the United States, to open up these opportunities for us, Washington and India, to work together and for the United States and India to work together.

Trade and investments are an essential part of our relationship with India. They are essential for all our allies and partners. And they should be in tandem with growing our partnership on critical, leading- edge technologies. I know the discussions that will happen today at the White House and in the future will be about marrying our technology economies as well--very important work to be done in the post-CHIPS and Science legislation that was passed--and working together on important national security issues.

But today is also very good news because it shows that the partnership between the United States and India can get us off of these retaliatory tariffs, help our farmers grow new market opportunities, and produce and sell our product in India, a very growing market for our apples and lentils.

So I want to thank everybody involved again--President Biden, Commerce Secretary Raimondo, Ambassador Tai, and Ambassador Garcetti-- for making this happen.

I look forward to hearing Prime Minister Modi's comments--and Foreign Minister Jaishankar--for continuing to see the work that our two countries are going to do together.

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Ms. CANTWELL. 112-8, Tax Convention with Chile, be considered made and laid upon the table and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
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