What's the Tariff on Sugar (Raw)?

Sugar is perhaps America's most politically protected commodity, with a baroque tariff-rate quota system that has kept US sugar prices at roughly double the world price for decades. The new 15% tariff stacks on top of this existing protection, creating an almost absurd level of market distortion. The US sugar program allocates import quotas to 40+ countries under a system largely unchanged since the 1980s. Brazil, the world's largest sugar producer, is perpetually constrained by these quotas despite producing sugar at half the US cost. The additional tariff pushes raw sugar costs even higher, benefiting a small number of politically connected domestic sugar producers — primarily in Florida's Everglades and Louisiana — at the expense of every American who consumes processed food. The candy and beverage industries have long lobbied against sugar protection, with some manufacturers relocating to Canada and Mexico specifically to access world-priced sugar.