Sugar lobby fighting to keep a sweet deal with US lawmakers

Washington

A SWEET deal for American sugar farmers is compounding delays in a proposed trade agreement affecting 40 per cent of the world's economy.

The commodity has become a sticky subject in talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, potentially the biggest trade deal in history and a key goal of the Obama administration. TPP would link a dozen countries and, its proponents say, make it easier for US companies to sell goods around the world. But the trade deal may also weaken protections for the sugar industry dating back to the Great Depression should negotiators heed the calls of Australia and other nations for the US to loosen a quota system that protects domestic suppliers while making the product more expensive for consumers. As they have for decades, sugar lobbyists are fighting to keep it that way by using their clout with lawmakers.