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Addressing internal and external market challenges key for supporting India’s apple farmers

A daily apple keeps the doctor away, but what if the apple industry is failing itself? There are a number of issues plaguing the Indian apple industry, including rising input costs, inadequate infrastructure, and unprofitable prices. In addition, farmers are concerned about the negative effects that rising import prices and incomes will have.

Farmers are looking for ways to protect themselves from imports by increasing tariffs and taking other measures, like excluding apples from free trade agreements (FTAs), in order to deal with issues on the trade front. To address import-related concerns, it is essential to examine the emerging issues and available trade instruments.

India has always been a net apple importer, and in 2021, it had a trade deficit of $363 million US dollars. In terms of volume, India imported 0.447 million tonnes in the same year, or 17% of the country's consumption.

In 2015, Chile, the United States, and China supplied the majority of imported apples. Iran, Türkiye, and Chile have taken over as the dominant players in this trend in recent years.

In terms of volume, India's imports of apples from the United States decreased from 55% in 2015 to 5% in 2021. It was as a result of a 20% tariff increase on US apples in 2019—from 50% to 70%. The move was made as a response to the United States imposing high tariffs on India's exports of steel and aluminum.

As a member of the WTO, India is unable to impose quantitative restrictions or increase apple tariffs beyond the maximum bound of 50%.

The applied tariff has been 50 percent for many years due to domestic concerns. In particular, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade's Article XXVIII negotiations resulted in the reduction of the bound tariff on apples from 55% in 2003 to 50% in order to raise the bound tariff on milk, wheat, and rice.