Misleading CAFTA Sugar Quota

In DR-CAFTA, the United States would grant the Dominican Republic an unusable sugar quota. In order to use the quota, the D.R. would need to demonstrate that it has a sugar trade surplus excluding exports to the United States. Because the D.R. only exports to the U.S., use of the quota would necessitate incurring a loss in sales to the world market.
This unusable CAFTA quota is just another nail in the Dominican sugar industry’s coffin. The “free trade” agreement would also deal a blow by establishing that sugar exports to the U.S. will always be subject to quota while imports of a sugar substitute, high-fructose corn syrup, will be free of duty and of quantitative restrictions.
These provisions pour salt on the trade wound inflicted by the reintroduction of the U.S. quota in 1983. That primary quota, now formalized in the World Trade Organization, imposes a cost on U.S. consumers of about $1.9 billion a year and robs competitive sugar producers of about a billion dollars a year in lost export trade opportunities. The United States should not treat poor, friendly countries like that, especially in areas where they are competitive.
The Dominican Republic holds the largest share of the sugar WTO quota after earning it fair and square by being the most competitive supplier in the years of free sugar trade. In regards to sugar, CAFTA would become an un-American endeavor. The sugar “quota” misleading provision is found in the DR-CAFTA texts, under Annex 3.3, U.S. Appendix I, Tariff Rates Quotas, Sugar, 3 (d), page 9.