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House, Senate members send letter opposing managed U.S.-Mexican sugar trade

A bipartisan group of 63 House members sent Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack a letter last week opposing any agreement to manage the sugar trade between Mexico and the United States.

U.S. sugar growers have charged that the Mexican government has been subsidizing the sugar it exports to the United States and have filed countervailing duty and antidumping petitions on those charges. The International Trade Commission and the Commerce Department are investigating those charges.

The House members said they are concerned that any settlement of the case could lead to “windfall profits” for U.S. growers and hurt sweetener users and their employers. A bipartisan coalition of 17 senators sent a letter earlier.



But the cases are legal proceedings, a situation that raises questions about whether the letters will have any impact on the outcome.

A spokesman for the American Sugar Alliance, which represents the beet and cane growers that filed the case said in an email, “We remain focused on litigating our cases.” F



–The Hagstrom Report