Washington - The Office of the United States Trade
Representative today announced it will allocate additional sugar imports
permitted under international trade rules to several African and Caribbean
countries.
On December 2, the U.S. Department of Agriculture increased
the quantity of the FY 2006 tariff rate quota (TRQ) for raw sugar quota by
272,155 metric tons to 1.5 million metric tons and the quota and 2006 TRQ for
refined sugar by 136,078 metric tons to 211,207 metric tons in response to
current supply shortages in the domestic market.
U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said today's allocation
of the additional imports should help sugar producers African and Caribbean
countries.
"We need additional sugar in the U.S. market and it makes
sense to provide whatever opportunity we can to producers in developing
countries," said Portman.
Among the African and Caribbean countries that will benefit
are Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, South
Africa, and Swaziland.
The allocation announcement comes as Portman prepares to lead
to the U.S. delegation to the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in
Hong Kong December 13-18.
At that meeting, the U.S. will continue to push for major
reforms in agricultural trade policies. In October, the U.S. offered a broad
proposal to cut tariffs and reduce or eliminate a variety of trade-distorting
subsidies but it has been blocked primarily by the European
Union.
With regard to sugar, the EU has recently agreed to lower its
price supports. This move could negatively impact revenue for producers in
former European colonies in Africa and the Caribbean who send their output to
Europe.
In August, USTR announced the country-by-country tariff-rate
quota allocations of the raw cane sugar, refined sugar, and sugar-containing
products for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006. A tariff-rate quota is an import policy that
allows countries to ship specified quantities of a product to the United States
at a relatively low tariff, but subjects all other imports of that product to a
higher tariff. The Secretary of Agriculture established the in-quota quantity of
the tariff-rate quota for raw cane sugar for FY 2006 at 1,226,057 metric tons.
Here is the list of additional sugar
allocations:
|
Country |
FY
2006 Additional Allocation |
|
|
|
|
Argentina |
11,797 |
|
|
|
|
Australia |
22,771 |
|
|
|
|
Barbados |
1,920 |
| |
|
Belize |
3,018 |
|
|
|
|
Bolivia |
2,195 |
|
|
|
|
Brazil |
39,781 |
|
|
|
|
Colombia |
6,584 |
|
|
|
|
Costa
Rica |
4,115 |
|
|
|
|
Dominican
Republic |
48,286 |
|
|
|
|
Ecuador |
3,018 |
|
|
|
|
El
Salvador |
7,133 |
|
|
|
|
Fiji |
2,469 |
|
|
|
|
Guatemala |
13,169 |
|
|
|
|
Guyana |
3,292 |
|
|
|
|
Honduras |
2,744 |
|
|
|
|
India |
2,195 |
|
|
|
|
Jamaica |
3,018 |
|
|
|
|
Malawi |
2,744 |
|
|
|
|
Mauritius |
3,292 |
|
|
|
|
Mozambique |
3,567 |
|
|
|
|
Nicaragua |
5,761 |
|
|
|
|
Panama |
7,956 |
|
|
|
|
Peru |
11,248 |
|
|
|
|
Philippines |
37,037 |
|
|
|
|
South
Africa |
6,310 |
|
|
|
|
Swaziland |
4,390 |
|
|
|
|
Taiwan |
3,292 |
|
|
|
|
Thailand |
3,841 |
|
|
|
|
Trinidad-Tobago |
1,920 |
|
|
|
|
Zimbabwe |
3,292 |
These allocations are based on the countries' historical
shipments to the United States. The allocations of the raw cane sugar
tariff-rate quota to countries that are net importers of sugar are conditioned
on receipt of the appropriate verifications of origin. All other country
allocations remain unchanged from those announced on August 30,
2005.
*Conversion factor: 1 metric ton = 1.10231125 short
tons.
