On March 19, the International Trade Commission voted 6-0 that the suspension agreements did in fact completely eliminate the injury to the domestic sugar industry. We are awaiting an explanation of the reasoning for its vote, which will be made public in April.
The two cane refiners—Imperial Sugar (Savannah, Ga.) and AmCane (Taylor, Mich.) challenged the suspension agreement and may appeal the decision to the Court of International Trade in New York City. The next major decision, expected in April, will be by the Department of Commerce to determine whether the two cane refiners have standing to request that the investigation of the Mexican subsidies and dumping continue.
Federal Budget Proposals
In late March, the House and Senate passed separate versions of the budget that would make cuts across the government to achieve a balanced budget in 10 years.
The differing bills must now be reconciled into one bill that would have to pass both houses again. This would require the various congressional committees to make changes in policies to meet the spending cuts. During consideration of the Senate budget debate, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) filed an amendment to harm U.S. sugar policy but ultimately did not offer the amendment.
Sugar Reform Bills
Sugar policy opponents in the House and Senate have now filed bills to remove all of the changes made in the sugar provisions in the 2008 farm bill and carried over into the 2014 farm bill. The bills have been referred to the respective Agriculture Committees, where no action will be taken on them.
However, elements of the bills are likely to be used in an attempt to amend the agriculture appropriations bill in committee or on the floor during debate and amendment. Yes, we should expect votes to harm sugar policy in both chambers this summer.
TPP Negotiations
All eyes are on Congress to see whether an agreement can be reached to pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA–or fast track) in April for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be in Washington on April 26 for an eight-day visit. There is great political pressure to pass TPA before he arrives so that there is momentum to complete the agreement. There is now mounting speculation that if TPA passes, the negotiations could be completed as early as late May.
There is a May 23-24 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade minister’s meeting in the Philippines, and they could find a time and place to try to close the negotiations. The trade ministers want to close and get it through the U.S. Congress this fall—before the presidential and congressional campaigns create additional issues for its consideration in 2016.
Biotech Labeling Bill
The “Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act” was reintroduced in the House on March 26 by Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.).
The bill attempts to achieve four major objectives: 1) Make the current voluntary review of all biotech traits by the Food and Drug Administration mandatory. All existing traits have already been fully reviewed by the FDA for toxicity, allerginicity and dozens of other factors to assure that the product is substantially equivalent to its conventional variety; 2) Require FDA to clarify the definition of what can be labeled as “Natural.” Food manufacturers are facing a myriad of lawsuits over this issue and the claim needs a definitive explanation; 3) The law would preempt state labeling initiatives so expensive state, country or local ballot initiatives that create huge supply chain problems can be avoided; and 4) It would establish a National Non-Bioengineered Food Certification program for those companies that wish to label some or all of their products as being non-GMO. There are various private certification programs with different requirements, so this would direct USDA to formulate standard rules as it did with the organic labeled products.
The beet sugar industry supports the Pompeo-Butterfield bill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has primary jurisdiction over the bill; the Agriculture Committee has responsibility for the Non-Bioengineered certification section of the bill. A Senate bill, which is likely to be different than the House bill, is yet to be introduced.
2015 Planting Intentions
On March 31, USDA projected beet acreage up this year by 20,500 acres over last year totaling 1,182,100 acres.
With what looks to be an earlier spring this year and little snow cover, we should see the crop going in on or ahead of schedule. As always, late frosts, heat and moisture will be the key factors in getting the crop off to a great start.