Washington state standards apple grades for extra fancy and fancy, except the Fuji variety, must be equivalent to or better than the U.S. standards for U.S. extra fancy and U.S. fancy grades of apples, 7 C.F.R. Sec. 51.300 et seq., in effect as of December 19, 2002. Apples meeting the foregoing grades may be marked either with the proper Washington or U.S. grade, or both. In no case may the Washington grade and condition requirements be interpreted as less than the standards required by the applicable U.S. standards for grades for the comparable Washington grade and variety.