Developing Country Sugar Group Says U.S. Should not Allow More Australian Sugar
The International Sugar Trade Coalition (ISTC) urged the U.S. to maintain its policy against reopening terms of access established in existing bilateral free trade agreements, and therefore to not provide additional access to Australian sugar, in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. The ISTC, which represents sugar industries in developing countries that traditionally supply the U.S. market with sugar, sent the letter in response to arguments to increase Australia’s access to the U.S. market in an earlier letter by U.S. business associations to the USTR.
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According to the letter, Australia is the only developed country that exports sugar to the U.S. under the Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ); all other TRQ suppliers are developing countries. ISTC said that, as a developed country, Australia exports a multitude of products to the U.S. By contrast, sugar exports to the U.S. are vital to many ISTC countries -- sugar is the largest agricultural export of several ISTC countries. ISTC said the U.S. should not give Australia preferential access ahead of 38 developing countries for which sugar exports are of much greater relative economic importance.