Pacific Rim pact to boost Canada's access to U.S. sugar market

Rogers Sugar

07/10/2015 18:06

NEW YORK, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The landmark Pacific Rim trade 
deal will boost Canada's access to the U.S. sugar market by 
19,200 tonnes, a trade group said on Wednesday, making it the 
second nation to gain greater access to the coveted U.S. sugar 
market through the pact agreed this week. 
    That includes 9,600 tonnes refined sugar quota through the 
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), on top of the existing 10,300 
tonnes it currently has through World Trade Organization (WTO) 
commitments, said Sandra Marsden, president of the Canadian 
Sugar Institute. 
    The TPP also includes a boost of 9,600 tonnes of quota for 
sugar containing-products, said Marsden. Canada currently has a 
quota of 59,250 tonnes for those products. 
    The news comes after protracted talks for the 12-country 
deal during which sugar had been considered a sticking point. 
Australia, the world's third-largest exporter, will get a boost 
of 65,000 tonnes and a larger share of any discretionary quota 
increases in years to come.  ID:nL1N1250UY  
    The U.S. market is a coveted destination for the sweetener, 
as local prices trade at a significant premium to global levels 
due to a complex network of import restrictions and price 
guarantees. 
    "This is a step in the right direction, but it's small in 
relation to the 11-million-tonne U.S. sugar market," Marsden 
said. 
    The U.S. government doles out a minimum of 22,000 tonnes for 
refined sugar under existing WTO commitments and of 1.1 million 
tonnes quota for raw supplies.  
    For refined sugar producers, the increase is significant. 
Additional quotas are rarely doled out for the white sugar and 
has not been increased since the 2011/12 fiscal year, Marsden 
said. 
    U.S. domestic raw sugar futures traded on ICE Futures U.S. 
 SFSc1  traded up 0.69 cent, or 2.8 percent, at 25.44 cents a lb 
by 12:23 p.m., the highest since the January 2015 despite the 
news. 
    Trade sources expect that the new access through TPP will 
mean other quota holders may lose their portions of their 
access, not that total U.S. imports will increase.  
    Canadian producer Rogers Sugar Inc.  RSI.TO  praised the 
increase, with the president of the country's Lantic Inc. 
Subsidiary describing it as "positive." 
     
     
     
 
 (Reporting by Chris Prentice; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) 
 ((christine.prentice@thomsonreuters.com; +1)(646)(223 6136; 
Reuters Messaging: 
christine.prentice.thomsonreuters@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: TPP SUGAR/CANADA