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MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico said Thursday it plans to request a
dispute panel under the North American Free Trade Agreement to
resolve a three-year row over Mexico' s right to export all of its
surplus sugar production duty-free to the United States.
Mexico' s Commerce Ministry requested the panel after the local
sugar industry on Wednesday rejected a U.S. proposal to resolve the
issue.
U.S. negotiator for agricultural trade Greg Frazier expressed
disappointment with Mexico' s decision, saying the United States
wanted to continue negotiations.
" We prefer to negotiate, not litigate, " he said.
" I agree this is a complicated problem. If it were easy, it
would have been solved a long time ago."
The United States wants to limit Mexico' s surplus sugar export,
fearing that an increase would flood the United States' already
oversupplied market and add to pressure that has pushed domestic
sugar prices to a 22-year low.
Mexico claims that starting Oct. 1, it has the right to export
duty-free its entire surplus sugar production, expected to be
roughly 600, 000 metric tons this year.
The dispute broke out in June 1997, when Mexico slapped
anti-dumping duties on U.S. high fructose corn syrup imports, which
are used mostly in soft drinks and bakery products.
The U.S. protested the anti-dumping duties and retaliated by
excluding Mexico from any increase in the amount of sugar it can
export to the United States duty-free.
At a news conference Thursday in Mexico, the country' s deputy
commerce minister, Luis de la Calle, threatened to eventually target
duty-free imports of U.S. corn if the United States doesn' t raise
its sugar quota on Oct. 1.
The Mexican sugar industry, which urged the government to request
the NAFTA dispute panel, has called on the Commerce Ministry to
block duty-free U.S. corn imports, used to produce high fructose
corn syrup.
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