The International Trade Commission is mounting a mandatory five-year review of countervailing duties applied to Moroccan and Russian phosphate fertilizers, against a backdrop of sky-high prices and looming trade disruptions.
The ITC is putting out an appeal for information from the domestic industry on Monday as part of an effort to determine whether removing the duties would hurt U.S.-based companies, according to a forthcoming Federal Register notice.
The Commerce Department imposed countervailing duties on Moroccan and Russian fertilizer exports in 2021, after determining that both countries’ state support is hurting U.S. producers.
The Biden administration then revised the duties in subsequent reviews. Morocco’s OCP has faced countervailing duties of more than 16% since 2024; Russia’s Apatit is subject to an 18% duty, and other Russian exporters face duties between 17.2% and 47.1%.
The tariffs prompted OCP and Russian companies to withdraw from the U.S. market, contributing to higher prices. A recent study from Texas A&M estimates that the duties alone increased the cost of U.S. fertilizers by $6.9 billion between 2021 and 2025.
“Phosphate duties have only hurt farmers by boxing out access to this important market on an essential input with no substitute,” Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said during a Senate Judiciary hearing last fall. He has been calling on the Trump administration to drop the tariffs to ease farm input costs.
The review comes against a backdrop of sky-high fertilizer prices. Diammonium phosphate (DAP) began the year with the highest-ever price-to-corn value ratio, StoneX’s Josh Linville told reporters in an email. As of Friday, it was tied for the third-highest ratio on record.
Administration officials have blamed high levels of concentration in domestic fertilizer industries. There are six companies producing phosphate-based fertilizers in the U.S., but more than 70% comes from just two companies – Nutrien and Mosaic – according to a 2023 analysis from Argus Media.
To meet domestic demand, the U.S. also imports DAP and monoammonium phosphate (MAP) from countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Mexico, Senegal and Tunisia, according to analysis from North Dakota State University.
But China, the world’s largest phosphate producer, has also restricted exports to prioritize domestic supply, further pushing prices up. And until November, the U.S. was also applying reciprocal tariffs against major exporters, including a 10% duty on Saudi Arabia and 15% on Jordan.
The Trump administration later excluded phosphate fertilizer from the reciprocal duties – and it has received a similar carveout from the new 10% global tariff – but not before U.S. importers had paid more than $31 million in duties, North Dakota State University researchers note.
If tensions flare with Iran, it could send phosphate prices even higher, Linville warned in his email. Iran has threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz in the event of a war. The waterway ferries a quarter of the world’s oil trade and substantial volumes of phosphate fertilizers.
“There is never a good time for war, but this couldn’t be much worse,” Linville said.
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