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News > Latin America

Mexico Cancels Sugar Export Permits to US in Trade Dispute

  • Mexican workers sit next to bags containing sugar at the San Francisco Ameca sugar factory in the town of Ameca, Jalisco, Feb. 18, 2011.

    Mexican workers sit next to bags containing sugar at the San Francisco Ameca sugar factory in the town of Ameca, Jalisco, Feb. 18, 2011. | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 March 2017
Opinion

The Economy Ministry decided to cancel the permits since it has no counterparts at the U.S. Department of Commerce to resolve the issue.

Mexico has canceled existing sugar export permits to the United States in a dispute over the pace of shipments, in a flare-up industry sources said could temporarily disrupt supplies, according to a letter seen Monday by Reuters.

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The letter sent by Mexico's sugar chamber to mills partly blamed the situation on unfilled positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce, which it said had led to a "legalistic" interpretation of rules with no U.S. counterparts in place in Washington for Mexican officials to negotiate with.

It added that existing permits would be reissued in April. The country's sugar mills are in full swing at the height of the harvest.

The document made no suggestion that the present dispute was related to the wider politics, but described as "absurd" an interpretation by "low-level" U.S. Commerce Department officials of a clause in so-called suspension agreements.

The dispute centers on an interpretation of how the Mexican government issues export licenses to ensure supplies enter the United States at a regulated pace. It was not immediately clear how many sugar export permits were canceled or what penalties Mexico had faced.

The Economy Ministry decided to cancel the permits since it has no counterparts at the U.S. Department of Commerce to resolve the issue, the document said. Mill owners should consider legally challenging the decision, it said.

Staff positions remain unfilled in several U.S. government departments, a situation Mexican officials say has made it difficult to negotiate trade issues. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Commerce did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

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The Mexican Economy Ministry said it could not immediately comment. Officials from Mexico's sugar chamber declined to comment.

Mexico's sugar quota, set annually by a 2014 trade deal, was established at 820,000 tons in the current 2016-17 crop year.

The U.S. sugar industry late last year pressed the Commerce Department to withdraw from a 2014 trade agreement that sets prices and quota for U.S. imports of Mexican sugar unless the deal can be renegotiated.

U.S. sugar prices have soared since late last year when Washington said the 2014 deal that suspended large duties on sugar from Mexico after a trade investigation may not be working as intended.

The cancellations marked the latest dispute of a years-long trade row between Mexico —the U.S. top foreign supplier of sugar — and the United States at a time when cane refiners are struggling with prices and tight supplies, U.S. industry sources said.

The license cancellation by Mexico adds to protracted marketplace uncertainty, said Richard Pasco, president of the Sweetener Users Association trade group. "We need adequate supplies and the lack of resolution is a problem," he told Reuters in a phone interview on Tuesday.

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