Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.96L.980314153122.13187A-100000@nbc.ksu.ksu.edu> Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 15:33:48 -0600 From: kerry <mailto:astingsh@KSU.EDU> Subject: IATM: Corn Syrup and Corn Brooms (fwd To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
------------------------------------------------------------------------ NAFTA & Inter-American Trade Monitor - Vol. 5, Number 5 March 06, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
CORN SUGAR AND CORN BROOMS
After Mexico finalized antidumping penalties on high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) imports from the United States on January 23, the U.S. Corn Refiners Association requested a dispute settlement panel under NAFTA. The association has also hinted at plans to pursue a case before the World Trade Organization.
The Mexican sugar industry argued successfully for imposition of antidumping duties, but the U.S. HFCS industry says that sugar and HFCS are not like products and so the Mexican sugar industry should not have been allowed to bring an antidumping case. HFCS is used in the soft drink bottling industry, where it takes the place of sugar. Despite imposition of the tariffs in June 1997, HFCS exports to Mexico have grown steadily.
In another NAFTA dispute, Mexico won a decision from an international arbitration panel striking down U.S. quotas and duties on Mexican handmade corn brooms. This is the first U.S.-Mexican trade dispute to go before an arbitration panel under NAFTA. The panel's recommendations are not binding.
The United States imposed quotas and countervailing duties on Mexican corn brooms to protect the 382 U.S. jobs in the corn broom industry in November 1996, saying U.S. broom makers needed time to adjust to Mexican competition. Jorge Trevi o, president of the Mexican Corn Broom Manufacturers' Association, said that the 33 percent duties cut their profits and decreased imports by 15 percent in 1997. Mexican officials retaliated with duties on California wine, Tennessee whiskey, brand, wine coolers, notebooks, wooden furniture, fructose and flat glass.
U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said that the NAFTA panel decision on corn broom imports was based on "a narrow, technical flaw" involving the injury determination of the U.S. International Trade Commission.
"Corn Refiners Announce NAFTA Case Against Mexican Dumping Decision," INSIDE U.S. TRADE, February 20, 1998; Lowry McAllen, "Council: Mexico Soft Drinks to Use More Corn Syrup," AGWEEK, February 9, 1998; "U.S. Mulls WTO Case in Response to Mexican Ad Decision on HFCS," INSIDE U.S. TRADE, January 30, 1998; "USTR Underscores NAFTA Panel Decision on Corn Brooms to Have Virtually No Effect on U.S. 'Safeguard' Regime," OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE, February 12, 1998; Leslie Crawford, "Mexicans Celebrate Trade Victory Over U.S.," FINANCIAL TIMES, February 16, 1998.
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