Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said it’s in the best interest of the U.S. sugar industry and Mexico to reach an agreement on trade issues before the Department of Commerce imposes import duties.
Perdue said May 2 there could be consequences to producers in both countries if the U.S. were to procure raw sugar from the world market.
“We’re not asking our sugarbeet producers, nor our cane producers in Louisiana and Florida, to do things that are not in their long-term best interest," he said. "I’m not going to ask anybody to sign a deal that’s going to put them out of business, but we do want them to think long and hard about the consequences."
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced May 1 it would end the antidumping and countervailing duty suspension agreements in place with Mexico and impose duties on Mexican sugar beginning June 5, unless the two countries could come to an agreement.
Phillip Hayes with the American Sugar Alliance says the U.S. has lost more than $4 billion in revenue since Mexico dumping began and growers in Hawaii ceased sugar production.
Source: brownfieldagnews.com