Mexico Sugar: Commerce Announces Changes to Suspension Agreements; Mirror Invalidated 2017 Amendments

The Commerce Department is again amending two suspension agreements that shelve antidumping and countervailing duties on sugar from Mexico (A-201-845/C-201-846). The changes are nearly equivalent to 2017 amendments to the 2014 accords that were thrown out by the Court of International Trade in a decision issued in October (see 1910210051).

The amended agreements take effect Jan. 15, the date that Commerce and Mexican industry representatives signed off on the changes. Commerce had initially put out draft amendments in November, shortly after the CIT ruling, and “has taken into account all comments submitted on the record of the suspension agreement proceeding.” CIT had vacated the 2017 amendments because Commerce didn’t record and allow for comment on some of the underlying negotiations.

As with the now invalidated 2017 amendments, the 2020 amendments modify the 2014 agreement’s definitions of refined sugar and intermediary customer. Also included are changes to reference prices, as well as the monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in the agreements.

(Federal Register 01/22/20)