The U.S. government says it is increasing the lower-tariff sugar import quota for the fiscal year 2021 by 90,100 tons.
Reuters says the goal is to increase the short-term supply on the domestic market.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s Office says it would allow this additional volume to enter the country until October 31, a month later than the usual cutoff.
The U.S. fiscal year finishes at the end of September. With the addition to the Tariff Rate Quota, or TRQ, the total volume of sugar entering the U.S. at a lower tariff will rise to 1.2 million tons.
That’s more than the 1.1 million tons the U.S. committed to within the World Trade Organization rules. It’s the second move from the U.S. government on sugar import quotas in the last two months.
In July, it reallocated part of the TRQ import quotas to other countries because some of the original license holders failed to deliver their products.
The Dominican Republic will get the largest share of the additional low-tariff quota at 19,000 tons, followed by Brazil and Australia. The increase comes as sugar futures on the U.S. domestic market are at their highest level in nine years.
