Monday, 09 February 2004

Artificial sweetener. Today the United States and Australia finalized the free-trade agreement that both countries had been negotiating for almost a year; all Americans will immediately benefit from access to inexpensive Australian auto parts, light commercial vehicles, and pharmaceuticals — and eventually (give or take 18 years) will be able to purchase Australian beef and dairy products at the market price.

What Americans won't get, alas, is cheap sugar. The sugar lobby's death grip on Washington costs Americans over $2 billion a year, in artificially high prices on everything from candy to bakery goods — and, get this, American taxpayers are footing the bill for storing excess sugar in warehouses: If the price of sugar falls below the cartel's limit, the federal government buys sugar it doesn't need to drive the price back up! It's a hidden tax of about $20 a year on each American family that the Bush administration just negotiated to continue, when it had a perfect opportunity to plead for the common good instead and to show that the United States honors its allies with more than just words. Doesn't America's most reliable and steadfast ally deserve better treatment than this?

The sugar cartel employs about 55,000 people in the United States; the candy-making industry employs about 65,000, but those jobs are all escaping to Canada and Mexico to avoid the cost of American sugar. (Labor costs also play a role, but the cost of raw materials plays a bigger one.) The sugar lobby is also supported by agribusiness, because raising the price of cane and beet sugar makes corn syrup viable as a cheaper alternative. (Soft drink manufacturers made the switch from sugar to high fructose corn syrup long ago. Baked goods and candy can't change their recipes as easily, so they're stuck with paying inflated sugar prices.)

The free-trade pact is good economic news, and will benefit both Australians and Americans. But if it weren't for the sugar money spent lavishly on our representatives, the American taxpayer would have saved billions more and the Australian sugar farmer would have gained a new market. Australia's reward for going into harm's way in Afghanistan and Iraq (among other places) apparently isn't worth what the American sugar lobby spends on corrupting our public officials.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 6:48 am. comments.