DOC Announces Action to Stop Mexican Dumping of Subsidized Sugar with Duties, Unless Deal Reached

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) yesterday announced that it would end the anti-dumping and countervailing duty suspension agreements in place with Mexico and impose duties on Mexican sugar beginning June 5, unless the two countries can reach an accord before then to stop Mexico's unfair trading practices.

Phillip Hayes, a spokesman for the American Sugar Alliance, released the following statement about the announcement:

We are grateful that the DOC is moving to bring the Mexican sugar industry into compliance with the U.S. trade laws that they were found guilty of breaking.But, Mexico has been unwilling to take the steps necessary to fully remedy the injury they created and instead are demanding the right to continue dumping sugar onto the U.S. market.

For far too long, the unfair trade practices of Mexico's inefficient, subsidized industry have punished efficient American sugar farmers and workers. We've lost more than $4 billion in revenue since their dumping began. Hawaii ceased sugar production in December after more than a century in the business, and more U.S. farms and factories are facing the same fate.

The time has come to stand up for U.S. jobs.We will continue to work closely with the DOC to ensure that Mexico is playing by the rules and not endangering America's 142,000 sugar farmers and workers in 22 states.

In 2015, the U.S. government ruled that Mexico violated U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty laws by subsidizing and dumping more than 2 million tons of sugar onto the market, thus harming American producers – a judgment that would have resulted in punitive duties of more than 80 percent.

The two governments negotiated agreements suspending those penalty duties. The agreements were supposed to stop the injury caused by Mexico's dumping and subsidization, but after two years, the DOC recognized that the agreements were not working and is trying to revise them.