An Australian government official has confirmed that the country will be allowed to export an additional 65,000 tonnes of sugar to the US under the Trans – Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal which was agreed on 5th October 2015. The Trans – Pacific Partnership is a trade pact comprising Australia, Brunei, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
This recent deal is in addition to the 87,402 tonnes of sugar allocated to Australia under the US annual tariff rate quota system which brings the total to about 152,000 tonnes. Just recently, Australia also won a critical increase in its share of any additional allowances to 23% from the previous 8%. According to sources, this increase in allocation places Australia into third place in the production of raw sugar quota, behind Brazil and Dominican Republic.
Following this development, the American Sugar Alliance which represents the sugar Industry said that it was cautiously optimistic and the Sweetener Users Association which represents sugar buyers lauded the increased access while indicating that more needed to be done. However, it is feared that other sugar exporters to the US may dispute the TPP trade pact as it could dilute the amount handed out to them.
On the other hand, the Sugar Trade Coalition which represents some quota holders including Dominican Republic and the Philippines is evaluating whether to dispute the deal.