The U.S. sugar program is the only major U.S.commodity program that guarantees fair prices to farmers, operates at no cost to tax payers and prevents export dumping at below the cost of production. In other words, it balances supply and demand.

The passage of the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) would require increased sugar imports which would threaten the viability of the U.S. sugar program with devastating effects on American sugar and sugar beet farmers. At the same time it would hurt sugar farmers in Central American developing countries through lowering their prices and the forced dismantling of border protections against agricultural imports dumped into their markets at below cost by U.S. multinational agribusinesses.