In 2017, the Department of Commerce amended this pact with Mexico: the definition of “refined sugar” in a less pure version (polarity of 99.2 degrees of 99.5) and the increase in the amount of gross import mixture allowed to enter the United States from Mexico have been changed. Mexican customs on HFCS from the United States were 15 percent. It was expected to drop to zero over the next 10 years under NAFTA. Mexican barriers to sugary products would be converted to tariffs and then reduced to zero over a ten-year period. The stay means that the United States and Mexico must end this amendment and return to the 2014 agreement. According to the ASA, the main trade group representing sugar and beet suppliers, the policy defined by the 2008 amendments to NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) has made the cost of foreign sugar cheaper. The United States imports more sugar from 41 countries, according to the ASA. “In principle, the changes have produced more raw sugar for U.S. tube manufacturers, but less sugar at higher prices for U.S. “melters” like CSC Sugar, which supply directly to food manufacturers without refining imports.” The court said the agreement was invalid because the Commerce Department had not released all recordings of the agreement meetings. As a result, the current sugar trade between the United States and Mexico is again governed by the suspension agreements of December 19, 2014. These agreements set the benchmark prices for refined sugars from Mexico at 26c per litre and 22.25c per litre for raw sugar, compared to 2017, which set benchmark prices at 28 c/lb for refined products and 23c/lb for “other” or raw sugar.
The initial suspension agreements also defined that refined sugars had a polarity greater than or equal to 99.5, while the 2017 amendments set the minimum polarity at 99.2, which in fact limited the amount of sugar distributed to U.S. “melters” who shipped directly to food producers and increased the amount of raw sugar imports going to U.S. tube refineries. The 2017 amendments also adapted the refined/gross blend of sugar imports from Mexico to 30%/70%, compared with 57%/47% in the initial suspension agreements. Such a large quota was not appropriate for countries with net import status. In 1991, Mexico imported 1.5 million tonnes of sugar, a gross value, while exporting only 30,000 tonnes.