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In absolute terms, only China provided more aid to its sugar farmers.

What’s more, American protections on sugar imports have been around at least as long as supply management. Though the roots of the current U.S. Sugar Program can be found in the 1930s, tariffs on American sugar date all the way back to the founding of the republic, said John Beghin, professor of agriculture and resource economics at North Carolina State University who has studied the program for years.

“There is a very, very long history of government intervention in this sector and it continues to this day,” Beghin said.

Managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the current program includes a system of “marketing allotments” that limit the amount of sugar that can be sold in the U.S. market to 85 per cent of projected domestic consumption.

These allotments are divvied up among states and producers, while the remaining 15 per cent of consumption is assigned via a quota to imports.

All imports exceeding the quota face a levy of 15.36 U.S. cents per pound of raw cane sugar and 16.21 cents per pound of refined sugar — a powerful deterrent to foreign producers for whom the world price for sugar hovered between 17 and 25 cents per pound in 2017. New York Raw Sugar index was trading at 25.60 U.S. cents per pound, compared to world prices of 10.63 U.S. cents, according to Bloomberg.

If sugar prices fall below a minimum guaranteed level, U.S. producers are eligible for a “price support loan”, using their sugar as collateral. If prices don’t pick up, producers can simply forfeit the sugar and keep the loan — while remaining eligible for more loans in the future.