{"id":34706,"date":"2016-09-21T08:02:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T15:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/?p=34706"},"modified":"2016-09-21T08:02:11","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T15:02:11","slug":"thailand-the-avis-rent-a-car-of-sugar-subsidies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/thailand-the-avis-rent-a-car-of-sugar-subsidies\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand: The Avis Rent-a-Car of Sugar Subsidies"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Chuck Muth)<\/strong><\/em> –\u00a0A story this week in the Bangkok Post vividly exposes just how unbalanced and inequitable the world sugar market is and why it\u2019s critical for Congress to keep the U.S. sugar program in place unless drastic and real reforms are made by global competitors.<\/p>\n

Thailand – #2 global sugar exporter and trying harder \u2013 has been accused of \u201cfoul play\u201d by Brazil – #1 in the world \u2013 and will be challenged for trade violations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Geneva next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrazil,\u201d the Post reports, \u201cis challenging Thailand over \u2018subsidies\u2019 for sugar producers that it says have dragged down global prices and allow Thailand to win a larger market share at the expense of Brazilian producers, conduct that is not in line with international trade agreements.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In response, Thailand recently announced a series reforms \u201cto overhaul\u201d its sugar system which are designed to preemptively defend against the complaint \u2013 demonstrating that enforceable global trade agreements indeed have the potential to better ensure a fair and balanced market.<\/p>\n

The main issue is a \u201c70:30 profit-sharing system between sugar millers and cane growers (that) provides monetary support from the country\u2019s Cane and Sugar Fund to Thai sugar cane producers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the fund does not have enough money,\u201d the Post continues, \u201cit seeks loans from the state-owned Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives<\/p>\n

The reform proposal would cancel the profit-sharing system, as well as \u201crevoke the sugar quota system, which sets aside three quotas each year to prevent sugar shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, sugar traders maintain the proposal won\u2019t result in any actual changes.\u00a0 \u201cIt just changes what you call it, from a quota to a buffer stock,” one trader told the paper.<\/p>\n

Thailand\u2019s government has also maintained a \u201cprice ceiling\u201d for sugar which \u201coccasionally results in sugar shortages as profiteers normally smuggle domestic sugar to sell in neighbouring countries, especially when global sugar prices rise above the fixed domestic retail price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, sugar industry observers predict that even if the proposed reforms are enacted, \u201cthere is unlikely to be any change to the Thai sugar trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the more reason why Congress needs to keep the U.S. sugar program of modest import quotas and tariffs in place unless or until a \u201czero-for-zero\u201d agreement is reached with trading partners which requires them to actually, not just on paper, end government subsidies for their sugar production and export industries.<\/p>\n

Unilateral disarmament in this decidedly not-free market is not in our nation\u2019s best interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Chuck Muth) –\u00a0A story this week in the Bangkok Post vividly exposes just how unbalanced and inequitable the world sugar market is and why it\u2019s critical for Congress to keep the U.S. sugar program in place unless drastic and real reforms are made by global competitors. Thailand – #2 global sugar exporter and trying harder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34707,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[748],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34706"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34709,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34706\/revisions\/34709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}