Pick Your Sugar High

The US has a sweet tooth—consuming the most sugar per capita in the world—but so does eighth-ranked Mexico. It should come as no surprise, then, that the sweetener trade between the countries spiked after tariffs were removed in 2008. Yet, US sugar producers were still successful in lobbying for a return of import quotas on Mexican sugar in 2014. As such, US confectionary companies are facing refined sugar prices that are 15% higher than the world price and it could get worse after Mexico canceled sugar export permits last week.