Washington – The Office of the United States Trade Representative today announced the allocations for the increased Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 tariff-rate quotas for raw cane sugar and refined sugar.  A tariff-rate quota is an import policy that allows countries to ship specified quantities of a product to the United States at a relatively low tariff, but subjects all other imports of that product to a higher tariff.  This action is in response to a continuing tight sugar market resulting largely from disastrous weather events that greatly reduced the FY 2006 domestic supplies.  

On February 2, 2006, the Secretary of Agriculture increased the in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quota for raw cane sugar for FY 2006 by 226,796 metric tons* raw value.  USTR is allocating this increased quantity.  Further, USTR is re-allocating 35,126 metric tons raw value of the FY 2006 tariff-rate quota allocations that will not be used by certain countries.  The total quantity of the raw sugar allocations (i.e., the additional allocation and the re-allocation) of 261,922 metric tons raw value is being allocated to the following countries:

Country            FY 2006 Additional and Re-Allocations (metric tons raw value)

Argentina                   15,461
Australia                     29,844
Belize                         3,955
Bolivia                        2,877
Brazil                          52,138
Colombia                    8,630
Costa Rica                 5,394
Ecuador                     3,955
El Salvador                 9,349
Guatemala                  17,259
Guyana                      4,315
Honduras                   3,596
Jamaica                      3,955
Malawi                      3,596
Mauritius                    4,315
Mozambique              4,674
Nicaragua                  7,551
Panama                      10,428
Peru                           14,742
Philippines                  30,000
South Africa               8,270
Swaziland                   5,753
Thailand                      5,034
Trinidad & Tobago     2,517
Zimbabwe                  4,315

These allocations are based on the countries’ historical shipments to the United States, excluding countries that are unable to ship additional sugar.  The allocations of the raw cane sugar tariff-rate quota to countries that are net importers of sugar are conditioned on receipt of the appropriate verifications of origin.  All other country raw cane sugar allocations, other than for those countries that are unable to ship additional sugar, remain unchanged from those announced on August 30, 2005 and December 9, 2005.

On February 2, 2006, the Secretary of Agriculture increased the in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quota for refined sugar for FY 2006 by 226,796 metric tons raw value, none of which is for specialty sugars.  A total of 25,000 metric tons raw value is being allocated to Canada and 59,349 metric tons raw value is being allocated to Mexico.  The remaining 142,447 metric tons raw value of the in-quota quantity may be supplied by any country on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to any other provision of law.  The certificate of quota eligibility is required for sugar entering under the tariff-rate quota for refined sugar that is the product of a country that has been allocated a share of the tariff-rate quota for refined sugar.
                          

*Conversion factor: 1 metric ton = 1.10231125 short tons.

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