The U.S. Department of Commerce yesterday made a preliminary determination in favor of a complaint filed by CF Industries that urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) imports from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago are unfairly subsidized by their governments. As a result, the Department of Commerce is recommending countervailing duties on fertilizers from these countries. The decision comes on the heels of a decision by the U.S. International Trade Commission in March to grant a petition by the Mosaic Company to place tariffs on phosphorous fertilizer imported from outside the country. Those tariffs were also recommended by the Commerce Department. In response to this development, the National Corn Growers Association President Chris Edgington released the following statement:
“Farmers across the country have spoken publicly over the last several weeks about the severe impact fertilizer shortages are having on the budgets of family farms. While there are a host of issues that contributed to this problem, including restrictive trade policies from other countries and the fallout from Hurricane Ida, the Mosaic tariffs have only made a bad situation worse. Given the crippling effect these tariffs have had on farmers, it’s deeply disappointing to see that the U.S. Commerce Department and CF Industries would continue to press for more tariffs. Farmers shouldn’t have to pay for disputes between American fertilizer companies and foreign producers. Mosaic and CF Industries can easily resolve these issues and provide immediate relief to farmers by dropping their petitions.”
