|
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, COLORADO – Rep. Thomas Ewing (R-IL),
chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee that has jurisdiction
over sugar, said today that Congress has approved “billions of
dollars of support for other farmers nationwide, appropriately so,
and that (support) should also include sugar farmers.”
He said critics of sugar policy need to remember that “what you
do to one farmer you do to all.”
Speaking to the 17th annual International Sweetener Symposium,
sponsored by the American Sugar Alliance, Ewing noted that sugar
farmers, like virtually all of agriculture, are suffering from
extremely tough economic times. “You should not be at all ashamed
if your program cannot keep up in the current situation.”
Ewing said he has always found it “frustrating that while sugar
prices go down, prices for manufactured products that use sugar
continue to go up.” He referred to the fact that wholesale refined
sugar prices have dropped 34 percent in the past three and a half
years, while prices being paid by consumers for candy, cookies,
cereal and other sweetened products have risen 6 to 10 percent
during the same period.
Ewing noted, too, that the manufacturers of sweetened products
are the primary critics of sugar policy.
“We don’t want to see the sugar industry run out of this
country,” Ewing said. “If we allow too much sugar in, we will
ruin our market.”
In this context, Ewing reminded the audience that NAFTA narrowly
passed Congress on the basis of having a “side-letter agreement on
sugar with Mexico.” Mexico has been disputing the validity of this
side letter. He said if the Mexicans are successful in their
confrontation over the side letter, it will “have ramifications
for future trade negotiations.”
On another topic, Ewing said of a General Accounting Office
report that was critical of sugar policy, “That report could have
been thrown out the window.” He said he agreed totally with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture which soundly criticized the GAO
report as being “flawed and unreliable.”
The Symposium continues through Wednesday.
The American Sugar Alliance is a national coalition of farmers,
processors, and refiners of sugarbeets, sugarcane and corn for
sweetener.
|