U.S. sugar producers cane Bush administration’s free-trade agreements

U.S. sugar producers cane Bush administration’s free-trade agreements    The Bush administration’s trade negotiators are under increased pressure to shield the U.S. sugar industry from bilateral and regional free-trade agreements.
   During the past two years, the Bush administration has either entered into or intends to start free-trade agreement talks with a large number of sugar producing and exporting countries. According to the Washington-based U.S. Sugar Industry Group, these countries export more than 27 million tons of sugar, three-times the amount of U.S. consumption.
   In a recent statement, Carolyn Cheney, chair of the U.S. Sugar Industry Group, said the Bush administration’s desire for bilateral and regional free-trade agreements is “ineffective and dangerous.”
   The U.S. Sugar Industry Group represents American growers, processors, and refiners of sugarbeets and sugarcane. The business, both in the United States and abroad, is heavily subsidized. It’s estimated that more than 120 countries produce sugar.
   “Subsidies and other trade-distorting programs cannot be addressed in these FTAs,” Cheney said. “American farmers should not be forced unilaterally to open their markets to the grossly distorted world dump market for sugar.”
   The U.S. Sugar Industry Group supports the Bush administration’s strong calls for restarting the World Trade Organization talks, which collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, last year.
   “The only way to address these subsidies and programs is comprehensively and multilaterally, in the WTO,” Cheney said. “It’s a global problem, and it must be addressed globally.”
   The Bush administration successfully excluded sugar from the U.S.-Australian free trade agreement signed between the countries on Feb. 8. However, sugar is still on the table for U.S. free-trade talks with four Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.
   Cheney said the proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement’s inclusion of sugar “further strengthens our resolve to work diligently to defeat the sugar provision.”