North Dakota’s congressional delegation says a U.S. worldwide Trade Commission ruling that Mexico dumped heavily subsidized sugar on USA markets is good news for sugar beet farmers in the Red River Valley.
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The U.S. global Trade Commission voted unanimously in favor in the final stage of a dispute, a decision that was broadly expected.
No duties will be applied to imports from Mexico, after the two countries penned a deal late past year that suspended the tariffs and established minimum prices and quotas for imports.
“The temporary decline in US sugar prices in the 2012-2013 an 2013-2014 crop years was attributable to the United States’ failed sugar policy, excess supply in the combined U.S.-Mexican sugar sector and the normal working of commodity markets – not to imports from Mexico”, the Sweetener Users said.
“That cloud has gone away”, said David Berg, president of American Crystal Sugar Co.in Moorhead, Minn.
The Sweetener Users Association, which represents large sugar buyers, issued a statement concluding ITC “missed a key opportunity to do the right thing for American consumers, taxpayers and businesses”.
The “needs-based” trade agreement will now remain in place for at least five years, though it could have been nullified had ITC or Department of Commerce instead ruled against the USA sugar producers’ claims. Most of the crop is grown in the eastern Red River Valley, with a small portion in the northwestern part of the state. The Commerce Department had said the dumping caused American sugar producers to lose roughly $1 billion from 2013 to 2014.
“We have mechanisms in the USA sugar program to make sure that supply is regulated so that prices stay above the statutory loan rate set by Congress”, Berg said.
U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said “it’s critical that we enforce our trade laws to guarantee fair sugar trade between the USA and Mexico”, and U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said “this ruling will help to level the playing field for USA sugar”.
Berg, who is a member of Mexico Task Force between the USA and Mexican sugar industries that helped shape the deal, said the ITC decision was just. “That defeats goal of having a sugar program, which is to maintain a domestic sugar industry”. The price of sugar often rises above that loan rate, depending on how the sugar program is being administered, as well as prices in the world market. It also caps exports of refined sugar to the U.S.at 53 percent of total Mexican sugar exports and sets a price floor for Mexican sugar at 26 cents per pound for refined sugar and 22.25 cents per pound for other sugar.
The price of USA sugar dropped to about 21 cents per pound, Hanks said.
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The decision can be appealed to the Court of worldwide Trade or to a binational panel review, according to US government regulations.
