Regional and bilateral trade agreements threaten the American sugar industry's existence, and trade issues involving the industry must be handled at the World Trade Organization level, elected officials and industry experts told attendees at the 20th International Sweetener Symposium.

Florida sugar industry officials are among 350 participants gathered in Blaine, Wash., for a three-day conference sponsored by the American Sugar Alliance that ends today.

Carolyn Cheney, Washington D.C.-based representative of the Belle Glade-based Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, said Tuesday in a phone interview that the industry is worried about what could happen if the Bush administration completes the free-trade agreements currently being negotiated with a variety of countries around the world.

"If those countries sent in the amount of sugar that they export, it would be 27.3 million tons, three times the size of our entire annual consumption in the U.S.," said Cheney, incoming chairman of the American Sugar Alliance, a national coalition of beet, cane and corn farmers and others in the domestic sweetener industry.

"It could ruin our market if they sent even one-fourth of it," she said.

Sugar trade needs to be negotiated at the WTO so it's covered on a global level, involving every sugar-producing country, Cheney said.

Often, in regional or bilateral pacts, developing countries are given leeway as far as labor and environmental standards. A piecemeal approach through agreements such as the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement and the 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas would mean different rules for different countries, Cheney said.

"Like citrus, we would like an exclusion from regional agreements such as FTAA," she said. 

FTAA negotiators have proposed removing a tariff on citrus imported into the U.S. from Brazil. Florida's citrus industry has mounted a campaign to save the tariff.

Federal trade officials could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

Sugar industry representatives are planning to go to Cancun, Mexico, for the next round of WTO talks in September, Cheney said.

Florida ranks first in the nation in sugar cane, producing 2 million tons of sugar. Along with molasses and other by-products, it is valued at more than $800 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In addition to the cooperative, Florida-based sugar growers and refiners include U.S. Sugar Corp. in Clewiston and Florida Crystals Corp. in West Palm Beach.