US grants add’l sugar quota to Phl

The United States granted the Philippines an additional sugar allocation of 3,075 metric tons (MT) in the next crop year.

In an announcement posted on the website of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture announced the Philippines has an allocation of 145,235 metric tons raw value (MTRV) for crop year 2023, or Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30, 2023.

This is higher than the 142,160 MT allocation in the previous fiscal year.

The allocation for the Philippines is the third largest next to Dominican Republic (189,343 MTRV) and Brazil (155,993 MTRV).

The US in-quota allocation for crop year 2022-2023 is placed at 1.117 million MTRV, the minimum amount committed by the US to the World Trade Organization.

The US tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for raw sugar allows countries to export specified quantities of a product to the US at a relatively low tariff but subject all imports of the product above a pre-determined threshold to a higher tariff.

Based on data from the Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA) in the past five years, the Philippines exported 116,212 metric tons commercial weight (MTCW) in crop year 20172018, 103,685 MTCW in 20182019, 109,408 MTCW in 20192020, and 112,008 MTCW in 2020-2021.

Last year, the country did not export any sugar products to the US.

Based on Sugar Order 1 for crop year 2021-2022, 100 percent of the sugar allocation will go to the “B” or the domestic sugar market to stabilize of local supply.