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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Tuesday, November 19, 2024
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.
The Commerce Department is sharply cutting its duty on Moroccan phosphate fertilizer products to just 2.12%, spurring optimism that imports will resume and provide American farmers with more supply options and better prices.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is following the lead of some of the nation's most influential farm groups, which banded together earlier this month to ask the Commerce Department to reduce or eliminate the duty on key imports of phosphate fertilizers from Morocco.
Dozens of national and state agricultural groups are beseeching the Biden administration to consider high fertilizer costs that are weighing down farmers as the International Trade Commission and Commerce Department weigh their options on continuing to levy duties on imports of Moroccan phosphate products.
A key Moroccan fertilizer company, bolstered by rising calls from farmers and lawmakers for more supplies of imported phosphate products, sees a pathway back to the U.S. market potentially in time for spring application season.
The Moroccan phosphate giant OCP got a major boost to its effort to reenter the U.S. phosphate market at the U.S. Court of International Trade, but company executives say there may be more challenging legal battles ahead in a campaign that has fertilizer-dependent farmers on their side.
Barges full of Moroccan phosphate that arrive in New Orleans are still moving up the Mississippi River, but that fertilizer isn’t for U.S. farmers. Countervailing duties the U.S. slapped on Moroccan phosphate giant OCP last year make that impossible, so the much-needed farm input is going to Canada instead.
The U.S. Court of International Trade has agreed to take into consideration arguments by five major U.S. farm groups against a decision this year by the U.S. International Trade Commission to allow tariffs to be placed on phosphate fertilizer imports from Morocco and Russia.
Farmers are paying more for the phosphate fertilizer they need as foreign and domestic producers fight for public opinion on whether the U.S. government should punish imports of the valuable crop production input with duties.
