If you really want to get under Steve Williams’ skin, just use the “P” word to describe the sugar industry.

That offending word is “protectionist,” and Williams, a Minnesota sugar farmer and the president of the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, says it is an unfair characterization of U.S. sugar producers.

“We’re the world’s second biggest importer of sugar. How is that being protectionist?” he asked. “We import sugar from 41 countries, whether we need the sugar or not, and 38 of our suppliers are developing countries. That’s a far cry from a closed market.”

Williams used two other “P” words to prove his point: “Peru” and “Panama.”

The United Sates negotiated trade agreements with both countries last year, and America’s sugar producers aren’t opposing either of the agreements, even though they included additional sugar access for the subsidized foreign suppliers.

“Protectionists wouldn’t take such a stance,” quipped Williams.

Officials with the American Sugar Alliance say reaction to the Peru and Panama trade pacts was positive because U.S. trade negotiators were able to ensure that the additional market access granted in the deals was reasonable and manageable.

Despite acceptance of the Panama and Peru deals, Williams pointed out that U.S. producers aren’t welcoming future bilateral trade deals with open arms.

Bilateral trade deals carve up America’s sugar market but do not address foreign countries’ subsidies, he explained.

“We support free trade and a market where the best businesspeople, not the most subsidized, are rewarded,” said Williams. “Our production costs are low by world standards and having to give up chunks of the U.S. market to inefficient, subsidized growers from other countries is ridiculous.”

For nearly a decade, U.S. sugar producers have urged the U.S. government to correct the problem by ridding the world sugar market of all trade distorting policies. This, they argue, can only be achieved at the World Trade Organization.

Unfortunately for U.S. producers, no progress has been made in achieving the comprehensive reform they have sought.

“That’s why the current no-cost U.S. sugar policy is so important,” argued Williams. “We don’t get subsidy checks, but it does keep foreign producers who are heavily subsidized from dumping unneeded sugar on the U.S. market just to put us out of business.”

U.S. sugar producers are asking Congress to renew the current no-cost sugar policy in the upcoming Farm Bill.