Protection of the Sugar Industry

Report Outline
Effects of Suspending Sugar Quota System
Historical Results of United States Sugar Policy
Sugar Acts of 1934 and 1937
Protection of Consumers and Export Markets
Special Focus

Effects of Suspending Sugar Quota System

When President Roosevelt suspended the marketing quota provisions of the Sugar Act on September 11 of this year, the action not only permitted the unlimited importation of sugar subject to normal tariff charges, but also removed acreage restrictions on the planting of next year's domestic sugar crops. Unless the quotas are reinstated within the next month or two, it will be too late to limit 1940 plantings, and the hope for a war-time market will probably lead to a large expansion of sugar production in continental United States as well as in the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Cuba.

Up to the present time, the President's order has not resulted in any significant increase in sugar imports. Suspension of the quotas has been sufficient to curb the speculative rise in the price of sugar, since stocks on hand are ample for all probable requirements. The order may actually have discouraged imports, because it automatically cancelled the special preference enjoyed by Cuba under a reciprocal trade agreement, and raised the tariff on Cuban sugar from $.90 to $1.50 per 100 pounds. Cuba still retains the traditional 20 per cent tariff preference the island has enjoyed since the treaty of 1902, and consequently the United States imports practically no foreign sugar except from Cuba.

In making public his executive order, President Roosevelt said: