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WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Luther Markwart,
chairman of the American Sugar Alliance, cautioned today, on the eve of a
meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Committee on Agriculture
in Geneva, that, contrary to WTO and U.S. sugar industry goals, ``the
world is moving further away from global free trade in sugar, rather than
closer to it.''
Markwart said, ``The newest example is the financial
aid package the Australian government has announced it is providing to its
sugarcane growers. This A$83 million bailout is consistent with the
growing amount of government aid being provided to farmers worldwide, for
many crops, in the face of unusually low commodity prices.''
He said, ``The Australian bailout, however, is not
consistent with Australia's trade rhetoric. Australia claims to be a free
trade country and sharply criticizes the sugar policies of other
countries, but I would suggest that first it should get its own house in
order.''
Markwart called Australia's latest subsidy for its
sugar producers ``somewhat ironic,'' given all the Australian government
already does for its sugarcane industry. ``In addition to a variety of
sugar-specific subsidy programs for transportation, irrigation, and
credit, the government permits a monopoly, the Queensland Sugar Ltd.,
formerly the Queensland Sugar Corporation (QSC), to control the purchase
and sale of virtually all Australian cane sugar. The U.S. government, in a
recent study of such marketing arrangements, rated the QSC as one of the
most trade-distorting export monopolies in the world,'' he said.
Markwart was referring to ``An Introduction to State
Trading in Agriculture,'' by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic
Research Service.
``The WTO did not address the distortions caused by
these state-trading- enterprise monopolies in the Uruguay Round, to the
relief of Australia and the host of other foreign countries that allow
them, but it must do so in the next trade round,'' Markwart said.
``The WTO should also be aware of the hypocrisy of
the claims made by a group led by Australia, Brazil, and Thailand, called
the Global Alliance for Sugar Trade Reform,'' Markwart said. ``These
countries target other countries' sugar policies and style themselves as
free traders, but they are not. Brazil's sugar industry is built on
elaborate subsidies for its massive cane alcohol industry. Thailand has
long provided infrastructural and other financial aids for its cane
farmers and controls marketing and pricing.''
He said, ``Distortions such as these are the reason
the U.S. sugar industry has stated since 1986, at the start of the last
trade round, that it supports the goal of genuine, global free trade in
sugar. American sugar farmers are competitive by world standards, with
costs of production well below the world average, so we would welcome the
opportunity to compete directly with foreign sugar farmers. But we cannot
compete with foreign governments.''
Markwart said, ``Our message to the WTO's Committee
on Agriculture remains the same: Please make every effort to address all
government intervention in the sugar marketplace in all countries,
including the Australias, the Brazils, and the Thailands of the world that
claim to be free trade, but are not. Only then can we achieve global free
trade in sugar, and the level playing field, that has long been the goal
of efficient American sugar producers.''
The American Sugar Alliance is the national coalition
of the growers, processors, and refiners of sugarbeets, sugarcane, and
corn for sweetener. Markwart, the ASA's chairman, is also Executive Vice
President of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, representing
12,000 sugarbeet farmers nationwide.
For more information on the American Sugar Alliance,
contact http://www.sugaralliance.com
SOURCE:
American Sugar Alliance |