US shifts 56,000 tonnes of raw sugar quota away from Brazil
Washington confirmed the redistribution of 56,000 tonnes of raw sugar import quota from Brazil to other suppliers, leaving Brazilian mills with 100,000 tonnes at the reduced tariff in the coming fiscal year. The Dominican Republic and the Philippines took the largest reallocated shares, while Brazilian sugar outside the quota faces a duty of about US$340 per tonne plus cumulative surcharges of 37.5%.
The United States confirmed on Wednesday, 23 September, a new redistribution of 56,000 tonnes of raw sugar import quota away from Brazil to other supplying countries, mundoba.com.br reported. Under the decision, Brazil will be able to ship 100,000 tonnes into the US market at the reduced in-quota tariff in the coming fiscal year, 35.9% less than in the previous cycle. The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) formalised the list of countries that will receive the volume withdrawn from Brazilian producers.
Dominican Republic and the Philippines take the largest shares
The Dominican Republic secured the biggest single allocation at 11,931 tonnes, followed by the Philippines with 9,151 tonnes, with the remainder spread across other countries holding shares of the US quota. The move was not a surprise for the trade. The administration of President Donald Trump had signalled the reduction in July for fiscal year 2027, and in August a senior Washington official said the quota would be returned only in exchange for “satisfactory commercial proposals”. The new US tariff-rate quotas take effect in October and are valid for one year.
What Brazilian sugar now pays
The reallocation sits on top of duties that have already been increased. According to mundoba.com.br, the charges now applying to Brazilian raw sugar are:
- an out-of-quota duty of approximately US$340 per tonne;
- cumulative surcharges of 37.5% on out-of-quota volume, the result of two USTR investigations;
- an additional 25% charge on volume inside the tariff quota, stemming from one of those investigations.
A 1.14 million tonne quota fixed at the WTO
The US global import quota for raw cane sugar stands at 1.14 million tonnes a year, a level set by the country's commitments at the World Trade Organization. Volume entering within that ceiling pays the reduced tariff, while anything above it is charged the full duty. Because the aggregate is fixed by the WTO commitment, the reallocation does not change how much raw sugar reaches US refiners on preferential terms — it changes which origins supply it. For buyers, the practical effect is a shift in the origin mix rather than in available volume; for exporters, it is a direct transfer of margin from one supplier to another.
Northeast mills carry the quota volume
Brazil exported 292,400 tonnes of raw sugar to the US market last year, according to Unica, the Brazilian sugarcane and bioenergy industry association. That is almost three times the volume that will be available at the reduced tariff in the coming fiscal year, which means the larger part of Brazilian sugar sold into the United States already moves at full duty.
The split is regional. Mills in Brazil's Northeast supply the volume covered by the quota, while shipments above the quota come from the Southeast. The cut therefore lands most directly on Northeast producers, for whom the preferential allocation has been the basis of access to the US market. Southeast mills, which account for the out-of-quota supply, absorb the layered surcharges on every tonne they ship.
With the new quotas running for one year from October and Washington linking any restoration to commercial concessions, the Brazilian allocation now depends on the state of bilateral trade talks rather than on harvest volumes or freight economics.
