News Release

            FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                CONTACT:    Audrae Erickson

            March 16, 2004                                                                                   (202) 331-1634

CORN REFINERS APPLAUD USTR PURSUIT OF A WTO CASE ON THE MEXICAN SODA TAX

WASHINGTON, DC – The Corn Refiners Association, Inc. (CRA) today applauded the filing of a World Trade Organization (WTO) case by the U.S. Trade Representative on the Mexican soft drink tax.

“This tax shut down our top foreign market for high fructose corn syrup sales overnight,” said Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association.  “Our industry has paid a terrible price of lost sales, seriously eroded investments and lost jobs.  We must resolve this longstanding dispute in a manner that re-opens the Mexican HFCS market to our industry as soon as possible.” 

The tax, first enacted by Mexico in January 2002, has caused significant investment and job losses to U.S. companies that made substantial investments in Mexican and U.S. HFCS capacity.  It also has shut down U.S. exports of HFCS to Mexico for more than two years.  Mexico is an estimated two million metric ton market for U.S. exports of HFCS, making it the top export market prior to the tax. 

For every 2 million metric tons of HFCS access into Mexico, the U.S. corn industry has lost: $620 million annual HFCS export sales; more than $300 million annual corn sales; 133 million bushels of bulk corn production; 945.7 thousand acres of corn production; and additional losses to seed, fertilizer and farm machinery industries and related rural investment.

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