Massachusetts

CONSUMER BENEFITS:

• Like all Americans, Massachusetts consumers pay 22 percent less for sugar than consumers in other developed countries*.

• When sugar prices plunged by almost 20 percent during 1996 - 2004, injuring producers, industrial sugar users and retail grocers did not pass the savings onto consumers.

• Massachusetts's consumers rely on a strong U.S. sugar industry to supply this essential food ingredient.

TAXPAYER BENEFITS: The U.S. sugar program is designed and intended to operate at no cost to American taxpayers.

JOBS: 372,200 jobs* in the U.S. rely on a strong U.S. sweetener industry.

ECONOMIC IMPACT: $21.1 billion of economic activity in 42 states is generated in the U.S. each year by the sugar and corn sweetener industries*

EFFICIENT PRODUCERS: More than 100 countries produce sugar and American producers are among the most efficient. More than half of the world's sugar is produced at a higher cost than in the U.S.

A MAJOR IMPORTER: The U.S. is the fourth largest net importer of sugar in the world. The WTO and NAFTA trade agreements require the U.S. to import sugar from 41 countries, about 15 percent of our market, whether we need the foreign sugar or not.

RESPONDING TO PREDATORY FOREIGN TRADE PRACTICES: Virtually every sugar exporting country dumps its surplus onto the world market at prices below any country's cost of production. Until these unfair foreign trade practices are addressed we must maintain a domestic sugar policy that responds to these predatory practices.

U.S. SWEETENER POLICY BENEFITS AMERICA

* SOURCES: "RETAIL PRICES OF SUGAR AROUND THE WORLD IN 2002," LMC INTERNATIONAL LTD., February 2003.

"THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUGAR AND CORN SWEETENER INDUSTRY TO THE U.S. ECONOMY,"
LMC INTERNATIONAL LTD., August 2001.

USDA