Corn growers are reacting negatively to an International Trade Commission decision that domestic phosphate fertilizer manufacturers were “materially injured” by government-subsidized imports from Morocco and Russia.
Issued Wednesday, the ITC's finding must still be reviewed by the Court of International Trade, which will decide whether it conforms with a Sept. 19 CIT order that found fault with an earlier material injury determination by Commerce.
In its decision filed with the court, however, the ITC said, “We … continue to find that an industry in the United States is materially injured by reason of phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia that Commerce has found to be subsidized by the governments of Morocco and Russia.”
The National Corn Growers Association noted that ITC's determination “comes almost a week after the [Commerce Department] announced it was lowering duties on [Moroccan phosphate fertilizer] from 19.97% to 7.41%, and introduces uncertainty on the fate of tariffs as it could be used as an argument to keep tariffs on phosphate fertilizers high.”
“The idea that major fertilizer conglomerates were materially injured even as they were posting substantially higher profits during the time in question sounds dubious to me,” Minnesota farmer and NCGA President Harold Wolle said. The time period covered is January 2017 through September 2020.
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“ITC’s decision flies in the face of the U.S. Court of International Trade’s request to seriously reconsider this issue and ignores the negative impact these tariffs continue to have on America’s farmers who are facing higher prices for fertilizers that are critical to the success of their crops,” Wolle said. “We will continue to make a vigorous case for eliminating or lowering these tariffs.”
Moroccan manufacturer OCP has been shipping triple superphosphate to the U.S., but not other phosphate products such as diammonium phosphate, or DAP.
Now, the CIT “will review and could send it back to either Commerce or ITC,” NCGA spokesperson Bryan Goodman told Agri-Pulse. “Commerce will have another bite at the apple in terms of a rate decrease or increase later this year, and ITC’s decision could influence that.”
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