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The
12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may allow more sugar
imports into the United States and Japan. That has brought
warnings from U.S. growers about economic devastation and some
in Japan go so far as to see a threat to national security.
Hawaii's sugar industry was once the state's third-biggest
employer, producing 1.2 million tons of sugar from 240,000
acres, according to American Sugar Alliance economics director
Jack Roney, who attributes part of the decline to U.S. trade
deals allowing imports from 41 foreign suppliers.
Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar (HC&S) is the only mill still in
operation, producing 200,000 tons from 36,000 acres on the
island of Maui, where trade ministers gathered this week to
thrash out a deal on the TPP.
"Any additional sugar that's allowed to come into the United
States with the TPP would be in direct competition with what we
are producing," HC&S plantation general manager Rick Volner
said.
"It doesn't take much to tip a business to the point where it's
no longer profitable."
On the Japanese islands of Okinawa, 4,720 miles (7,600 km) to
the west of Maui, 24,000 families depend on sugar production but
that is down from 29,000 in 2004.
Japanese production has fallen from 980,000 tonnes to 730,000
tonnes in 2014, well under half its consumption. That compares
to 4.6 million tonnes produced in Australia - which hopes to
export more to both the United States and Japan under the TPP -
and 7.8 million in the United States, OECD figures show.
Importers have to pay a levy to make up the hefty difference
between international and Japanese prices, which are six to
eight times higher than world prices for sugar cane and more
than double for beets.
Australian sugar producers would like this levy to be cut under
the TPP, allowing more exports.
Japan Sugar Refiners' Association President Shuji Hisano, in
Maui for the TPP talks, said the sugar industry was
strategically important because of Okinawa's proximity to China.
"If the sugar market is fully liberalized, sugar cane farmers
will no longer be able to make a living, and they are likely to
abandon farming and leave the island," he said.
"Is it a good idea to leave those border islands unmanned for
the sake of national security?"
(Writing by Krista Hughes; Editing by Alan Raybould)
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