USDA considers waivers for timely quota certificates for Mexican sugar

USDA considers waivers for timely quota certificates for Mexican sugar    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service will consider waiver requests from the requirement of timely presentation of quota certificates for Mexican sugar imports.
   The waiver requests for Mexico cover the tariff-rate quota on sugar for fiscal year 2006 (Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006).
   The USDA said the purpose for the waiver is due to the “numerous disruptions” to the U.S. sugar market in fiscal 2006, resulting in spot shortages and increased U.S. import requirements.
   “Importers of sugar under tariff-rate quotas allocated to Mexico experienced delays in receiving certificates for quota eligibility, due in part to processing delays in both the United States and in Mexico,” the USDA said. “There were also numerous cases of delays at ports of entry into the United States for sugar under tariff-rate quotas even when certificate for quota eligibility was available, and importers sometimes avoided delays by entering sugar under a high-duty tariff line which did not require a certificate for quota eligibility.”
   The U.S. agriculture secretary has authority to grant waivers to quota certificate requirements, if they do not disrupt the sugar quota system.
   The USDA must receive waiver requests by Dec. 1. If Mexico’s fiscal 2006 sugar tariff-rate quota fills, no more waivers will be considered.
“Individual entries affected by this notice will be processed in the order they are received,” the USDA said.