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Sugarbeet Growers address unfair foreign policies

The director of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association hopes the Trump Administration is aware of what he calls unfair trade policies.

Luther Markwart says countries like Brazil, India, and Thailand provide huge subsidies to their sugar producers.

“And they’re pushing millions of tons of sugar onto the world market below the cost of production anywhere in the world.”

He tells Brownfield the U.S. sugar industry is at a disadvantage.

“These are countries who are sometimes less efficient or don’t have the sustainability standards that we have in the U.S., and we can’t let them subsidize and dump that (sugar) into our market and drive more efficient and sustainable producers out of business.”

Markwart says because the U.S. is the third-largest importer of sugar in the world, their approach to trade agreements is more defensive than offensive.