WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2016 - Sen. Mike Crapo, a co-chair of
the Senate Sweetener Caucus, is urging U.S. officials to work with the Mexican
government to fix import agreements that the sugar industry says are broken,
resulting in tons of subsidized sweetener being dumped into the U.S. market.
“Mexico has pursued creative means of circumventing the
18-month-old suspension agreements,” the Idaho Republican told attendees at the
American Sugar Alliance’s 33rd International Sweetener Symposium in
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Tuesday.
“The suspension agreements are not working, and Mexico and
Mexican sugar producers are still effectively dumping subsidized sugar into the
United States,” Crapo said
Mexico had promised to clean up its export act in 2014 after
the U.S. Commerce Department found the country’s sugar industry guilty of
pushing subsidized sweetener into the U.S. market at below the cost of
production, harming American producers. As a result, the U.S. agreed to suspend
retaliatory tariffs against Mexico as high as 80 percent.
ASA economist Jack Roney said the association is considering
formally asking Commerce to terminate the “suspension agreements” and reinstate
the tariffs, effectively suspending any Mexican shipments into the U.S.
“We see it as a way to get Mexico’s attention,” Roney said
in an interview, adding that ASA believes both governments understand the
gravity of the situation.
Crapo said action is needed to protect a $20 billion
industry that directly or indirectly supports more than 140,000 U.S. jobs. “It’s
incumbent upon our government to crack down on unfair trade practices and
ensure the suspension agreements with Mexico are properly executed and upheld,”
he said.
The sugar that Mexico is shipping to the U.S. is also helping
to push U.S. prices near the government’s minimum support price. That could
result in processors paying off loans from the government in collateralized
sugar, and costing U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars. The only time that has
happened was in 2013, when forfeitures cost the government an estimated $258
million.
That in turn could give critics of U.S. sugar policy – which
is designed to operate cost-free to taxpayers -- more ammunition in their calls
for reform during debate for the 2018 farm bill.
“I doubt that will happen,” said Roney, but he said ASA is
in the process of drawing up its petition in case negotiations fail.
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