WASHINGTON, Feb 2:India has agreed to reduce the import tariff on pecans by 70 per cent, said an influential American Senator, who has been campaigning on it for the last one year.
Senator Jon Ossoff, who represents Georgia in the US Senate and met seven times with India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu over the last year, on Wednesday said that the reduction in tariff on pecans would help the farmers in his constituency.
“Today I can announce that after a year of painstaking diplomacy, the Indian government will cut that tariff by 70 per cent. This is a huge win for Georgia pecan farmers, and it wouldn’t be possible without them,” Ossoff said.
Ossoff said India’s high pecan tariffs have prevented Georgia pecan exports to this market of more than one billion consumers.
He thanked US Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai for her steadfast support, Sandhu for his constructive engagement, Senator Warnock for his teamwork, and Georgia’s farmers for their perseverance to secure this victory.
Ossoff met last year with Deputy US Trade Representative Ambassador Sarah Bianchi, who agreed at his urging to put reducing India’s high pecan tariffs at the top of the US-India trade agenda.
In August 2022, Ossoff personally led an economic delegation to India to meet with key business and Government leaders and continue urging for a reduction in tariffs.
Last month, he brought US Trade Representative Ambassador Tai and the US Chief Agriculture Negotiator Doug McKalip to Georgia to meet with farmers and representatives of the main agricultural industries in the state, where they briefed leaders on efforts to find a reduction in India’s high tariff. (PTI)
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