According to the News Wire "Import Quotas" page 339, what is the net U.S. job loss from sugar quotas?
NEWS WIRE IMPORT QUOTAS
Obama Cuts Sour Deal on Sugar
President Barack Obama has kept a campaign promise to the sugar lobby at the expense of American families struggling to pay their grocery bills and U.S. manufacturing workers fighting to keep their jobs. . . .
Since the early 1980s, the domestic U.S. sugar industry has enjoyed cartel-like control of the domestic market. A system of price supports and import quotas virtually guarantees domestic beet and cane growers an 80 percent market share. At times, this has forced American families and sugar-consuming industries to pay prices two or three times the spot world price.
This has been bad news for families, who must pay higher prices at the grocery store, but equally bad for a segment of American workers. Artificially high domestic sugar prices raise the cost of production for refined sugar, candy and other confectionary products, chocolate and cocoa products, chewing gum, bread and other bakery products, cookies and crackers, and frozen bakery goods. Higher costs cut into profits and competitiveness, putting thousands of jobs in jeopardy. . . .
In all, 6,400 workers in the sugar-processing industry have lost their jobs because of their own governmentâs deliberate policy to drive up the cost of their major input. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, the sugar program âsavesâ only 2,200 jobs in the sugar growing and harvesting industry. So our sugar policy eliminates three jobs for every one it saves.
âDaniel Griswold, Cato Institute
Source: "Obama cuts sour deal on sugar,â The Detroit News, October 8, 2009. Copyright © 2009 The Detroit News. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
NOTE: Import restrictions raise domestic prices, making both domestic consumers and foreign producers worse off. They enrich domestic producers, however.
According to the News Wire "Import Quotas" page 339, what is the net U.S. job loss from sugar quotas?
NEWS WIRE IMPORT QUOTAS
Obama Cuts Sour Deal on Sugar
President Barack Obama has kept a campaign promise to the sugar lobby at the expense of American families struggling to pay their grocery bills and U.S. manufacturing workers fighting to keep their jobs. . . .
Since the early 1980s, the domestic U.S. sugar industry has enjoyed cartel-like control of the domestic market. A system of price supports and import quotas virtually guarantees domestic beet and cane growers an 80 percent market share. At times, this has forced American families and sugar-consuming industries to pay prices two or three times the spot world price.
This has been bad news for families, who must pay higher prices at the grocery store, but equally bad for a segment of American workers. Artificially high domestic sugar prices raise the cost of production for refined sugar, candy and other confectionary products, chocolate and cocoa products, chewing gum, bread and other bakery products, cookies and crackers, and frozen bakery goods. Higher costs cut into profits and competitiveness, putting thousands of jobs in jeopardy. . . .
In all, 6,400 workers in the sugar-processing industry have lost their jobs because of their own governmentâs deliberate policy to drive up the cost of their major input. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, the sugar program âsavesâ only 2,200 jobs in the sugar growing and harvesting industry. So our sugar policy eliminates three jobs for every one it saves.
âDaniel Griswold, Cato Institute
Source: "Obama cuts sour deal on sugar,â The Detroit News, October 8, 2009. Copyright © 2009 The Detroit News. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
NOTE: Import restrictions raise domestic prices, making both domestic consumers and foreign producers worse off. They enrich domestic producers, however.
