Conservative Coalition Urges Congressional Support for Sugar Reform Proposal

A coalition of free-market conservative leaders and organizations today submitted a letter to Members of Congress urging support for Rep. Ted Yoho’s (R-Fla) “Zero for Zero” proposal designed to reform current U.S. sugar policy.

While critics of the current program of targeted tariffs and import quotas have called for immediate and unilateral elimination of the program without preconditions, signers of the letter disagree.

“Instead, it would be more responsible to adopt Congressman Ted Yoho’s ‘Zero-for-Zero’ resolution in which the U.S. will agree to end our sugar program in return for foreign governments agreeing to simultaneously end their subsidy programs,” the coalition stated in its letter.

“This would be a win-win for everybody and perfectly consistent with fair and balanced free-market principles.”

Signers note that Zero for Zero fulfills President Donald Trump’s commitment that under his administration the United States “will stand up to trade cheating anywhere and everywhere it threatens the American job.”

Zero for Zero co-sponsors include Reps. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Lois Frankel, D-Fla., Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, Garret Graves, R-La., Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., Walter Jones, R-N.C., Daniel Kildee, D-Mich., Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., Tom Rooney, R-Fla., and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.

Signers of the letter include Chuck Muth of Citizen Outreach, Seton Motley of Less Government, Rick Manning of Americans for Limited Government, Andrew Langer of Institute for Liberty, Jim Martin of 60-Plus Association, Mario Lopez of Hispanic Leadership Fund, Matthew Kandrach of Consumer Action for a Strong Economy and Michael Thompson of Thomas Jefferson Institute.

The letter may be accessed here: http://bit.ly/2njsR2G