Trade Alliance To Promote Prosperity Applauds U.S. Senators’ Letter Requesting Phosphate Tariff Petition Be Denied

At the request of the giant Mosaic Company, the U.S. Department of Commerce is poised to decide whether to pursue an investigation into imports of phosphates, which are commonly used in fertilizers in American agriculture, from Morocco and Russia and could ultimately decide to slap exorbitant tariffs on those countries’ phosphate exports to the United States. 

Today, eight prominent Republican U.S. Senators wrote to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and International Trade Commission Chairman Jason Kearns and urged them to deny Mosaic’s petition. See the attached letter. 

In part, the Senators wrote, “U.S. farmers depend on affordable phosphate fertilizers to produce a variety crops… The imposition of duties of between 30.72 and 71.50 percent on phosphate fertilizers, as sought by the petitioner, would result in higher input costs for U.S. farmers.”

The Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity applauds the Senators’ responsiveness and echoes the sentiment: Tariffs on phosphates would amount to another unbearable blow to farmers.