Editing Sucrose (section)

==Trade and economics==
{{update|section|date=January 2024}}
One of the most widely traded commodities in the world throughout history, sugar accounts for around 2% of the global dry cargo market.{{citation needed|date=November 2007}} International sugar prices show great volatility, ranging from around 3&nbsp;cents to over 60&nbsp;cents{{clarify|reason=What cents: US$ or euro? |date=April 2022}} per pound in the {{As of|2007|alt=past}} 50&nbsp;years. About 100&nbsp;of the world's 180&nbsp;countries produce sugar from beet or cane, a few more refine raw sugar to produce white sugar, and all countries consume sugar. Consumption of sugar ranges from around {{convert|3|kg|lb|abbr=off}} per person per annum in Ethiopia to around {{convert|40|kg|lb|abbr=on}} in Belgium.{{citation needed|date=November 2007}} Consumption per capita rises with income per capita until it reaches a plateau of around {{convert|35|kg|lb|abbr=on}} per person per year in middle income countries.

Many countries subsidize sugar production heavily. The European Union, the United States, Japan, and many [[developing countries]] subsidize domestic production and maintain high tariffs on imports. Sugar prices in these countries have often up to triple the prices on the international market; {{As of|2007|alt=today}}, with world market sugar futures prices {{As of|2007|alt=currently}} strong, such prices were typically double world prices.

<div class="skin-invert-image">{{wide image|World raw sugar prices since 1960.svg|700px|{{center|World raw sugar price 1960–2014}}|alt=World raw sugar price from 1960 to 2014}}</div>
Within international trade bodies, especially in the [[World Trade Organization]] (WTO), the "[[G20 developing nations|G20]]" countries led by Brazil have long argued that, because these sugar markets in essence exclude cane sugar imports, the G20 sugar producers receive lower prices than they would under [[free trade]]. While both the [[European Union]] and United States maintain trade agreements whereby certain developing and [[least developed countries]] (LDCs) can sell certain quantities of sugar into their markets, free of the usual import tariffs, countries outside these preferred trade régimes have complained that these arrangements violate the "[[most favoured nation]]" principle of international trade. This has led to numerous tariffs and levies in the past.

In 2004, the WTO sided with a group of cane sugar exporting nations (led by Brazil and Australia) and ruled illegal the EU sugar-régime and the accompanying ''ACP-EU Sugar Protocol'', that granted a group of African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries receive preferential access to the European sugar market.<ref>{{cite report |title=EC export subsidies on sugar |website=wto.org |publisher=[[World Trade Organization]] |url=https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/1pagesum_e/ds266sum_e.pdf |access-date=2011-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090410230058/https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/1pagesum_e/ds266sum_e.pdf |archive-date=2009-04-10}}</ref> In response to this and to other rulings of the WTO, and owing to internal pressures against the EU sugar-régime, the European Commission proposed on 22&nbsp;June 2005 a radical reform of the EU sugar-régime that cut prices by 39% and eliminated all EU sugar exports.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sugar |series=Agriculture |date=2004-07-14 |website=ec.europa.eu |publisher=European Commission |url=https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/markets/sugar/index_en.htm |access-date=2011-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822160634/https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/markets/sugar/index_en.htm |archive-date=2009-08-22}}</ref>

In 2007, it seemed<ref>{{cite web |title=International Sugar Trade Coalition |type=main page |website=sugarcoalition.org |url=https://www.sugarcoalition.org/ |access-date=2011-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601235516/https://www.sugarcoalition.org/ |archive-date=2009-06-01}}</ref> that the [[U.S. Sugar Program]] could become the next target for reform. However, some commentators expected heavy lobbying from the U.S. sugar industry, which donated $2.7&nbsp;million to U.S. House and Senate incumbents in the 2006 U.S. election, more than any other group of U.S. food-growers.<ref>{{cite news |title=Seeing sugar's future in fuel |department=Business |date=8 October 2007 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/business/18sugar.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707111955/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/business/18sugar.html |archive-date=2017-07-07}}</ref> Especially prominent among sugar lobbyists were [[the Fanjul Brothers]], so-called "sugar barons" who made the single {{as of|2003|alt=largest}} individual contributions of [[soft money]] to both the Democratic and Republican parties in the U.S. political system.<ref>{{cite news |title=America's sugar daddies |date=11 November 2003 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/29/opinion/29SAT1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307151447/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/29/opinion/29SAT1.html |archive-date=2016-03-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Sugar daddie$ |date=1997-05-01 |magazine=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]] |url=https://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coinop_congress/97mojo_400/boller.html |access-date=2010-05-05 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202042223/https://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coinop_congress/97mojo_400/boller.html |archive-date=2008-12-02 }}</ref>

Small quantities of sugar, especially specialty grades of sugar, reach the market as '[[fair trade]]' commodities; the fair trade system produces and sells these products with the understanding that a larger-than-usual fraction of the revenue will support small farmers in the developing world. However, whilst the [[Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International|Fairtrade Foundation]] offers a premium of $60.00&nbsp;per tonne to small farmers for sugar branded as "Fairtrade",<ref>{{cite web |title=Sugar |website=fairtrade.net |publisher=[[Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International]] (FLO) |url=https://www.fairtrade.net/sugar.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120802115902/https://www.fairtrade.net/sugar.html |archive-date=2012-08-02}}</ref> government schemes such as the U.S. Sugar Program and the ACP-EU Sugar Protocol offer premiums of around $400.00&nbsp;per tonne above world market prices. However, the EU announced on 14&nbsp;September 2007 that it had offered "to eliminate all duties and quotas on the import of sugar into the EU".<ref>{{cite report |title=Trade Issues |date=2010-05-06 |department=External Trade |publisher=[[European Commission]] |website=Ec.europa.eu |url=https://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/pr140907_en.htm |access-date=2011-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090905045532/https://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/regions/acp/pr140907_en.htm |archive-date=2009-09-05 }}</ref>