Ag Alert. February 15, 2023

U.S. keeps tariffs on Spanish ripe olives after WTO ruling

imposition of the levies in 2018, Spanish olive exports to the U.S. have dropped by nearly 60%, according to the EU. Prior to the duties, Spain exported nearly 67 mil- lion euros worth of olives to the U.S, or about $72 million. Even with the prior tariffs, Glenn County grower Michael Silveira pointed out that Spain’s olive industry had continued to benefit from EU subsidies and “is still dumping its ripe olives in the U.S. market.” “If it weren’t for the U.S. government’s ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on Spanish olives, American

table olive production and hundreds of family farmers and allied American jobs would be in serious jeopardy,” said Silveira, who serves as chairman of the Olive Growers Council. Carranza said she does not expect the new U.S. levies will eliminate Spanish ol- ives coming into the U.S. completely, “but it is helping mitigate the issue that existed before the duties and tariffs were in place.” The “real win,” she said, is that no com- modity group, until now, has been able

By Ching Lee The U.S. will continue to impose coun- tervailing duties on imports of Spanish ripe olives after it lowered rates of the tariffs to satisfy findings by a World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel. California table olive growers have ap- plauded the move. For years, they have contended that Spain’s highly subsidized olives are sold into the U.S. at artificially low prices, flooding the U.S. market and undercutting domestic producers. The U.S. International Trade Commission agreed with them, and in 2018, the Commerce Department began imposing antidumping and countervailing duties as high as 20% and 27%, respective- ly, on imports of Spanish ripe olives. The European Union challenged the measures by taking the case to the WTO. In its November 2021 ruling, the WTO dispute panel sided with the U.S. on some points and the EU on others. Though the panel found some of the U.S. measures to be “inconsistent” with certain provisions of WTO regulations, it allowed the U.S. to maintain some countervailing duties on Spanish olives. The panel recommend- ed the U.S. bring its measures in line with WTO tariff and trade rules. The Commerce Department made changes last month by scaling back rates of the countervailing tariffs on Spanish ol- ives. The new implementation “fully ad- dresses and resolves all WTO concerns,” the Olive Growers Council of California said in a statement. “We’re really happy to see the (U.S. Trade Representative) and the govern- ment decided to continue to uphold Sales receipts for farm exports in 2022 set a record U.S. farm and food products post- ed record export sales totals in 2022, according to trade data from the U.S. Department of Commerce. International sales totaled $196 billion. That is an increase of 11%, or $19.5 billion, from the previous record set in 2021. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the export earnings Feb. 10. “We’re knocking down trade barri- ers that hamper U.S. producers’ access to key markets,” he said in a statement. “And we’re continuing to invest in export market development programs, partner- ing with industry to bring high-quality, cost-competitive U.S. products to con- sumers around the world.” Sales value increased in all the United States’ top 10 agricultural export mar- kets: China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Colombia and Vietnam. Sales to seven markets set new records, with the only exceptions being Japan, the European Union and Vietnam.

these safeguards, which have made a huge impact for the table olive industry in California especially,” said Elizabeth Carranza, the council’s director of trade and technical affairs. Spain, the world’s top olive produc- er, maintains that the U.S. measures are unjustified and has called on the Biden administration to remove them. Since

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February 15, 2023 Ag Alert 3