WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald J. Trump today praised a sugar trade deal with Mexico – calling it “a very good one” for both countries – but some are not sold on the pact, including a Republican Senator from Pennsylvania.
In another tweet earlier Thursday, the President said “New Sugar deal negotiated with Mexico is a very good one for both Mexico and the U.S. Had no deal for many years which hurt U.S. badly.”
The deal was actually signed earlier this month and is designed to keep Mexico from flooding the U.S. with under-priced sugar.
In response to the the deal and Trump’s Thursday tweet praising the pact, Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania sounded off in a statement of his own:
TOOMEY
Recently, the U.S. Commerce Department and the Mexican Government struck a deal to increase the price of imported sugar. I am completely mystified as to why our Commerce Department would agree to such a bad deal. This is a bad deal for American consumers and workers because it completely fails to address the high price of sugar we already have.The truth is this deal actually makes the problem worse. It pushes sugar prices even higher and threatens well-paying jobs in food-producing industries across our country, including nearly 40,000 jobs in Pennsylvania.
This deal continues protectionist policies that favor a handful of U.S. sugar producers and refiners. Unfortunately, these large agribusinesses are already subsidized by domestic agricultural policies, which force American consumers to pay artificially high prices for their products. The fact is that the new agreement should be doing just the opposite, lowering costs for American families at the checkout line.
A good deal would have created a market where the interest of the American consumer comes first. This deal does the exact opposite.
New Sugar deal negotiated with Mexico is a very good one for both Mexico and the U.S. Had no deal for many years which hurt U.S. badly.
