U.S. sugar industry reaffirms support of WTO. (News Briefs).

In testimony before a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee today, a representative of the domestic sugar industry said the U.S. sugar industry "supports the goal of genuine global free trade in sugar but we insist that the only way to achieve this goal is through the World Trade Organization (WTO)." Jack Roney, Director of Economics and Policy Analysis for the American Sugar Alliance, said inclusion of sugar in regional or bilateral trade agreements, such as the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) or the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) would "spell disaster for all sugar producers in the Western Hemisphere -- except the subsidized producers of Brazil."

He said concessions on access for sugar from CAFTA or FTAA countries would have disastrous effects not only on domestic producers but for our foreign suppliers, as well, if the American market is destroyed. The U.S. imports sugar from 41 different countries, paying the foreign farmers the same prices that American farmers get for their sugar. Sugar exports from all FTAA countries are more than 15 million tons a year, 50 percent higher than the United States total consumption.