Within 90 days, the world’s largest market will again be open to importing apples from the United States.

USApple, based in Vienna, Virginia, announced that India agreed to lift its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. apples while India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the White House on June 22.

The cooperative was an invited guest of the White House at the arrival ceremony. “We were honored to be part of this important day for U.S.-India relations,” USApple President and CEO, Jim Bair indicates in a release. 

The national apple group saluted the work of the Biden Administration and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in achieving “this important victory.”

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USApple’s Board of Directors met with White House staff in March and advocated for this resolution. 

 “U.S. apple growers can now begin the work of competing for, and hopefully regaining, this critical market,” says Bair. “We look forward to once again shipping great apples to this valued trading partner.”

Prior to the U.S. imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum from India in 2018, the country was the number two market for U.S. apples – and quickly growing. When India retaliated by bringing total tariffs on U.S. apples to 70 percent, sales fell to nearly zero, costing U.S. growers half a billion dollars in sales.

India is now the world’s most populous nation, and with this important trade resolution, U.S. growers have the opportunity to be one of their biggest apple suppliers once again.