U.S. Apple Industry Seeks China Sanctions

The U.S. apple industry on Monday accused China of selling apple-juice concentrate at unfairly low prices and asked the federal government to impose a tariff on those imports to even up the market odds.

“A flood of cheap apple-juice concentrate imports from China is drowning much of our industry in a sea of red ink,” said Kraig R. Naasz, president of the U.S. Apple Association in McLean, Va.

“The U.S. apple industry is united in its pursuit of relief from the adverse economic impact of China’s unfair pricing practices.”

The industry contends that China - now the largest apple producer in the world - is selling apple-juice concentrate in the U.S. market at prices 91 percent below cost of production.

The import of cheap concentrate hit Washington growers particularly hard in 1998, driving down prices in both the juice and fresh apple markets in a year of record production.

Some Washington growers were getting as little as $10 a ton for their juice apples, a 93 percent decline from 1995’s $153. It meant that many apples were left in the orchard to rot.

The petition, filed with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission, asks that import duties be imposed on the concentrate.