| WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. Department of Agriculture
Thursday announced fiscal 2001 tariff-rate quota shipping
patterns for U.S. imports of Mexican sugar.
The USDA said Mexico will be allowed to ship up to 70% of
its outstanding TRQ quantity of 105,788 metric tons raw value
before June 30, 2001. The remaining 30%, plus any residual
quantity not shipped prior to June 30, may enter during the
final quarter the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The USDA said the announcement fulfills the U.S. commitment
to provide Mexico additional duty-free market access for sugar
in fiscal 2001 under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
On Sept. 21, 2000, the U.S. Trade Representative announced
Mexico would be allocated duty-free access totaling 116,000
metric tons in fiscal 2001. Of this amount, USTR immediately
allocated to Mexico a raw sugar TRQ of 7,258 metric tons and a
refined sugar TRQ of 2,954 metric tons (raw value) that
weren't subject to shipping pattern requirements. The U.S.
government allocated these quantities to Mexico as part of its
World Trade Organization/Uruguay Round market access
commitment for sugar, the USDA said. |