Andalusia sets tariffs with the US by $ 120 million

The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucía, Carmen Crespo, expressed on Wednesday an estimate of approximately 120 million dollars of the tariffs that the United States would impose on Andalusian exports, which in turn would impact on 315 million dollars of sales of Andalusian products in that market.

At the press conference after the meeting of the Governing Council, Crespo wondered: “but what is the impact it would have on the export sector”, before proclaiming: “Andalusia cannot be hostage to the policies of the Trump Administration”, for what he considered the imposition of new tariffs as “a blow to the Andalusian economy”, which quantified in the fact that “40% of Spanish exports to the United States are Andalusian”.

The Minister of Agriculture spoke of a “domino effect” when considering US tariffs would impact “on other countries to which we export” and identified the products affected by these general tariffs of 25%: olive oil, olives, other oils, rice, octopus, almonds, crab and sherry wine, although it opened the door to “a definitive list when everything is known in detail.”

The Minister said that “the application of 25% tariffs to all Andalusian products is not correct” when arguing that “each product supports different tariff codes”, so it was referred to an approximate impact figure, which has specified that “we have estimated tariffs at approximately $ 120 million, worth 2018, as well as an economic impact of 315 million on exports affected by tariffs.”

Crespo highlighted the relevance of the United States as an Andalusian export market with data such as 6.5% of Andalusian exports, so he concluded that it is “a very important niche market”, also increased by the fact of a 20% growth of Andalusian sales in the North American market. Andalusian exports to the United States total 680 million in 2018 and is the first non-EU destination for Andalusian sales abroad.

K. Tovar

Source: dpa