A bipartisan group of House and Senate members, led by Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), on Dec. 12 sent a letter to the US International Trade Commission urging it to consider the input of farmers and agricultural retailers as it weighs a final decision on tariffs on phosphate imports from Morocco (GM Nov. 3, p. 1; Sept. 22, p. 1).
“The Commission has only narrowly opened the record after its previous determination to put tariffs on phosphate was remanded back to the Commission by the US Court of International Trade,” said the group. “The Court gave the Commission wide latitude to reopen the record, yet the Commission is not allowing commodity organizations and agriculture retailers to provide information about the US fertilizer market.”
“Since this process began in 2020, growers, retailers, and suppliers have provided information to the Commission and the US Department of Commerce about the US fertilizer market and the worsening challenges we face obtaining adequate domestic supply,” the group continued. “We believe that the Commission is arbitrarily limiting both the information allowed to be submitted and the parties permitted to respond.”
They noted that the questionnaire was sent only to US producers and US importers of phosphate. “We believe additional parties, namely the farmers who need phosphate fertilizer to grow crops, the retailers who sell phosphate fertilizers, and the organizations who represent them, should be given the opportunity to respond,” they said.
Some 58 agricultural groups, led by the National Corn Growers Association, sent a letter to the ITC on Dec. 7 on the same topic. “We urge the ITC to consider impacts on family farms as it works to reconsider its determination of material injury to domestic industries,” the earlier letter stated.
Congressional members joining Marshall included Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), and John Boozman (R-Ark.), as well as Reps. Tracey Mann (R-Kan.), Jake LaTurner (R-Kan.), John Rose (R-Tenn.), Greg Pence (R-Ind.), Julia Letlow (R-La.), James Baird (R-Ind.), and Jim Costa (D-Calif.).