Mexico and U.S. reach sugar deal

Mexico and the United States reached a deal on Monday to avert potentially steep duties on Mexican sugar imports to the United States in talks that went down to the last minute.

The U.S. Department of Commerce said late on Monday that Mexican and U.S. officials and Mexican sugar exporters initialed a draft agreement that would suspend both anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties on the goods, if adopted in full.

The deal defuses a dispute that threatened to escalate into a tit-for-tat trade war after Mexico threatened to take U.S. support for its sugar industry to the World Trade Organization and could have led to retaliatory duties on U.S. fructose.

Source: Reuters