Abstract
The U.S. and Mexican sweetener industries have long been involved in disputes and have agreed to several side agreements apart from NAFTA. Sugar associations filed antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty petitions to U.S. institutions in response to an increase in Mexican sugar imports. Later, both the United States and Mexico reached to an agreement to suspend AD and CV duty investigations in order to facilitate new quantity and price restrictions on Mexican sugar imports. This article highlights key issues that may crop up during the NAFTA renegotiation and the complexities in the North American sweetener market. The key issues include the U.S. sweetener trade balance, price restrictions on Mexican sugar, refined versus raw sugar imports into the United States, total fructose exports and corn exports into Mexico, and enforcing agreements.
