BrownfieldAgNews reports:
The International Trade Commission is upholding its decision that U.S fertilizer companies were harmed by Moroccan and Russian imports, and current tariffs will remain in place.
Nancy Martinez, Director of Public Policy, Trade, and Biotechnology with the National Corn Growers Association, tells Brownfield fertilizer represents up to 40 percent of input costs and the decision ignores the impact on corn farmers.
“Phosphate specifically has increased 230% in price from 2020 to 2022,” she says. “We’re talking about a massive chunk of what farmers have to plan for, so any shot that we can get out of bringing more folks and options into the market will help with those price increases.”
The ITC says there is evidence of oversupply in 2019 and imports put downward pressure on prices in the U.S. market. They say imports were offered at low prices and caused domestic producers to reduce prices by an average of 16 percent, deteriorating net incomes.
Martinez says the decision comes almost a week after the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it was lowering Moroccan duties on phosphate from nearly 19 percent to less than 7.5 percent and introduces uncertainty on the fate of tariffs.
The U.S. Court of International Trade will review the remand decisions and input from the Commerce Department before issuing a final ruling.
