"This cuts off one avenue for circumventing the sugar import rules established by the United States under the WTO," said Ray VanDriessche, a sugarbeet farmer from Bay City, Michigan, who is President of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association (ASGA).

In 1999, the Customs Service determined that a mixture of sugar, molasses and water called "stuffed molasses," imported from Canada by a subsidiary of the international trading company ED&F Man of the United Kingdom, is really just sugar, and therefore subject to the quota on sugar imported into the United States. Customs found that mixing molasses with refined sugar was merely an artifice to evade the sugar quota. The Court of International Trade overturned the Customs Service ruling and the U.S. Government and the United States Beet Sugar Association appealed that decision to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals reversed today, holding that the Customs Service's classification is the law.

Circumvention of sugar quotas by stuffed molasses and other products is the target of a bill introduced by Senators John Breaux (D-LA) and Larry Craig (R-ID) to prevent circumvention. "Now we need to pass the Breaux-Craig Bill to strengthen the authority of the Customs Service to act quickly in circumvention cases," VanDriessche said.

ASGA represents 12,000 sugarbeet farmers nationwide and participates in the American Sugar Alliance, the national coalition of growers, processors, and refiners of sugarbeets, sugarcane, and corn for sweetener.