Avocados, kiwifruit and oranges will avoid the 12.5 per cent import tax
Chilean avocados, kiwifruit and oranges will be exempt from the 12.5 per cent tariff announced by the US last week, Frutas de Chile has revealed.
The announcement follows talks between Chilean fruit associations and the government to define strategies responding to the latest salvo in Trump’s trade war. On 24 July, the US unveiled a new battery of tariffs – ranging from 10 to 12.5 per cent – on imports from 60 countries over claims they failed to prevent forced labour.
During a meeting with Chile’s foreign minister, Francisco Pérez Mackenna, the president of Frutas de Chile, Iván Marambio, said the government had achieved some initial successes amidst this complex trade landscape with the exemption of avocados, kiwifruit, and oranges exempt from the new tariff.
“We are facing a scenario forced by tariffs,” Marambio said, adding that “as a country, we have managed to maintain the exemption… and we continue to provide technical data to the negotiations, which the government is handling very well”.
In a bid to expand the list of products exempt from this measure, Frutas de Chile put forward a list of arguments based on the sector’s importance to the US economy.
It pointed out that exports of fresh Chilean fruit generate over 19,000 jobs per season in the US, concentrated primarily on the East Coast. According to the association, Chilean fruit contributes nearly US$4bn to US GDP each season.
Citing these figures and the “complementarity that fresh Chilean fruit offers vis-à-vis local US production”, Marambio said the industry would continue working intensively through diplomatic and commercial channels to secure exemptions for more products.
