Congress Warns Of Increased Tariffs On Mexican Sugar Imports

Washington, DC – Today, the Coalition for Sugar Reform applauded a bipartisan group of 51 members of the U.S. House of Representatives for urging the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to take into account how the outcome of the U.S.-Mexico sugar negotiations will impact American manufacturing jobs in America’s food and beverage industry and consumer prices.

In a letter to Secretary Ross this afternoon, policymakers on both sides of the aisle wrote:

“On May 1, the Department of Commerce declared that after reaching ‘an impasse’ in talks with Mexico on sugar trade disputes, the U.S. government has decided to ‘resume the collection of antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) on sugar imports on June 5, 2017, unless an agreement is reached.’ We write to you to express our concerns that an increase in the tariffs on imported sugar will increase the price of food to American consumers.”

The letter, spearheaded by Reps. Charlie Dent (R-PA) and Danny Davis (D-IL), also calls for “workable, fair” suspension agreements and notes that proposals made by the U.S. sugar lobby would make the agreements far worse. Specifically, the 51 Republicans and Democrats noted:

“While a higher level of raw sugar should be required in the agreements, this must be done without the government picking winners and losers among private companies, so an improved set of agreements should ensure fair competition and not effectively limit shipments to only certain cane refineries; and

“The 2014 farm bill established price support levels for both raw and refined sugar, and Congress has taken no action to authorize the Administration to increase these support levels, so improved suspension agreements should avoid any reference prices that effectively support U.S. sugar prices significantly above levels debated and approved by Congress, and in no case should reference prices be increased from their levels in the existing suspension agreements.”

For the full text of the letter, click here. 

An alliance of consumers, food and beverage manufacturers, taxpayer watchdog groups, responsible government advocates and trade advocacy and environmental groups – the Coalition continues to urge Commerce to overhaul the suspension agreements to encourage a competitive marketplace and support U.S. manufacturers and the hundreds of thousands they employ in every state.

The United States is a net importer of sugar, and until the U.S. sugar industry filed anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases in February 2014, there was free trade in sugar between the United States and Mexico since early 2008. Mexico has become an integral part of the North American sugar trade and is a critical supplier of sugar to the United States.

Learn more about how Washington can make U.S. sugar policy work for America atwww.SugarReform.org.

About the Coalition for Sugar Reform:

The Coalition for Sugar Reform (www.SugarReform.org) represents consumer, trade, and commerce groups, manufacturing associations, and food and beverage companies that use sugar — including confectioners, bakers, cereal manufacturers, beverage makers and dairy companies — as well as the trade associations for these industries.

Source: Coalition for Sugar Reform