(Washington, D.C., July 14, 2025) — Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in alignment with Secretary Rollins’ Farmers First policies, announced no additional imports of specialty sugars beyond what U.S. international obligations dictate.

“Production agriculture has seen devastating impacts from natural disasters, Biden-era policies, and extraordinary increases to cost of production,” said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Alexander Vaden. “Worse, a trade landscape that, over the last four years, favored foreign competitors over America’s farmers, ranchers, and producers, lead to what is projected to be the largest agricultural trade deficit on record. President Trump‘s America First approach is tipping the scales back in favor of American agriculture. Although sugar policy is uniquely designed to protect sugar farmers from the dumping of heavily subsidized foreign sugar, those farmers are not immune from the same distress facing other agricultural producers. Over the last 20 years, sugar imports have more than doubled and producers have lost 15% of the U.S. sugar market to imports, leading to closures of mills and processors—economic and financial losses that impact farmers, rural communities, and consumers. This decision begins to right the ship.”