Brazil Among Countries to Benefit from WTO Tariff-Rate Quota Volume Reallocation for Raw Cane Sugar

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative today announced the reallocation of the unused country-specific and first-come, first-served in-quota allocations under the tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on imported raw cane sugar for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 (October 1, 2018 through September 30, 2019).

TRQs allow countries to export specified quantities of a product to the United States at a relatively low tariff, but subject all imports of the product above a pre-determined threshold to a higher tariff.

On June 29, 2018, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the establishment of the in-quota quantity for raw cane sugar for FY 2019.  The in-quota quantity for the TRQ on raw cane sugar FY 2019 is 1,117,195 metric tons raw value (MTRV), which is the minimum amount to which the United States is committed under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement.  On July 17, 2018, USTR provided notice of country-by-country allocations of the FY 2019 in-quota quantity of the WTO TRQ for imported raw cane sugar.  Based on consultation with quota holders, USTR has determined to reallocate 100,071 MTRV of the original TRQ quantity from those countries that have stated they do not plan to fill their FY 2019 allocated raw cane sugar quantities.  USTR is allocating the 100,071 MTRV to the following countries in the amounts specified below:

These allocations are based on the countries’ historical shipments to the United States. The allocations of the raw cane sugar WTO TRQ to countries that are net importers of sugar are conditioned on receipt of the appropriate verifications of origin, and certificates for quota eligibility must accompany imports from any country for which an allocation has been provided.

Conversion factor: 1 metric ton = 1.10231125 short tons.