The current U.S. sugar program costs bakers and consumers over $4 billion each year in higher sugar prices.  This arcane sugar policy has a long history of supporting a small group of sugar producers at the expense of sugar users.  The program is made up of four parts:

• Import quotas (also called Tariff Rate Quotas, or TRQs) set limits on how much sugar can be imported into the U.S. every year.  Imports above this level are subject to an extremely high tariff, typically higher than U.S. sugar prices.

•  Price supports, which enforce a minimum price for sugar in the U.S. domestic market.  This makes the domestic price substantially higher than the world market price.

• Marketing allotments, which are aimed at preventing surplus supplies in the domestic market.  Each beet processor and cane mill is under a government imposed and legally-binding limit on the amount of sugar it is permitted to sell each year.

• A sugar to ethanol program, that forces the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase "excess" sugar and resell it to ethanol refineries for pennies on the dollar.

ABA is firmly against current sugar policy and actively supports sugar program reform.

More information:  

Sugar Policy 101 - A white paper on the U.S. sugar program.

Impact on Jobs in the U.S. - For every one job saved for sugar producers, three are lost in food manufacturing due to the current sugar program.

America's Bittersweet Sugar Policy - A CATO Institute analysis of the domestic impact of the sugar program.