Sen. Shaheen Asks USTR, USDA to Change Sugar TRQ Administration

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a longtime advocate for sugar policy revisions and increased sugar imports, asked the Agriculture Department and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative "to swiftly implement recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its recent report, 'Sugar Program: Alternative Methods for Implementing Import Restrictions Could Increase Effectiveness'" (see 2310310063). The report, which noted that raw sugar imports haven't filled the tariff rate quotas in any of the past 27 years, recommended USDA evaluate alternative methods of allocating raw sugar TRQs, and that USTR consider other allocation methods that would meet World Trade Organization obligations.

"I was pleased to see USTR announce that, for Fiscal Year 2024, it will be reallocating quotas for more than 220,000 metric tons of sugar imports from countries that do not plan to fill their allocated quota for this fiscal year," Shaheen said. "This is an important move that will be helpful to Americans this year, but more needs to be done to make long-term improvements to the TRQ allocation process as a whole," she wrote.

In the letter she publicized Dec. 20, Shaheen noted that the sugar program is contributing to higher costs for consumers and food manufacturers, and creates supply shortages for food manufacturers.

"The report further states -- in quoting a U.S. International Trade Commission study -- that sugar has 'by far the highest trade protection of any U.S. good, agricultural or non-agricultural' and that America is second only to China in providing government support for the sugar industry," she wrote.

Her news release said sugar was the only commodity whose federal support program wasn't changed in either of the past two farm bills.