Sugar-trade negotiations between US and Mexico extended

Cesar Rodriguez | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Workers load a truck with sugarcane in a field in the town of San Cayetano in the municipality of Tepic, Nayarit state, Mexico, on Thursday, May 18, 2017. If U.S. reinstates duties on sugar imports, Mexico’s government should immediately respond with reciprocal tariffs on imports of high fructose corn syrup from the U.S.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Monday extended the deadline for sugar trade negotiations between the United States and Mexico by 24 hours, saying extra time was needed to complete “final technical consultations” for a deal.

“The two sides have come together in quite meaningful ways, but there remain a few technical details to work out,” Ross said in a statement as time was running out on a Monday deadline. “We are quite optimistic that our two nations are on the precipice of an agreement we can all support, and so have decided that a short extension of the deadline is in everyone’s best interest.”

These talks are supposed to remedy harm to U.S. sugar producers. The negotiations come as President Donald Trump is seeking to negotiate the North American Free Trade agreement as part of his “America First” agenda.

Mexico was originally found to violate U.S. trade laws as it pertains to sugar dumping and subsidizing. In March, Mexico canceled its sugar export permits to the United States.