Florida's sugar industry issued a report Thursday claiming that Brazil and Guatemala enjoy an unlevel playing field when it comes to sugar production and called on the World Trade Organization to address the issue.

"Guatemala and Brazil are rife with trade-distorting labor and environmental differences that lower production costs," concluded the report by Peter Buzzanell & Associates Inc., an economic consulting firm. Buzzanell analysts visited sugar plants in both countries.

The Florida Sugar Industry Labor Management Committee commissioned the report they offer as proof that sugar issues should be dealt with by the WTO, which is scheduled to begin meeting next week in Cancun, Mexico, rather than regional agreements such as the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

"We're trying to emphasize the fact that the FTAA is bad for labor in general, particularly for the sugar industry," said Frank Ortis, the committee's executive director. The group includes Clewiston-based U.S. Sugar Corp., Florida Crystals Corp. in West Palm Beach and the International Association of Machinists.

Ortis said the machinists union represents 3,000 skilled laborers who work at U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals.

Those jobs as well as the rest of the industry could be lost through any trade agreement that would force U.S. industry to compete with countries where wages and environmental standards are weak.

"Their jobs would be at risk over time," said Van Boyette, a Washington-based vice president of Florida Crystals.

Rising costs and flat prices have led to the closing of 15 sugar refineries in the United States in the past 23 years.

The report said that the average unskilled Guatemalan sugar factory worker receives $1.70 an hour in wages and benefits, compared with $23.09 an hour for starting laborers at a Baltimore plant that refines Florida sugar.

"You can't compete with $1.70 an hour," Ortis said. "You can't compete with child labor and poor environmental conditions."

The minimum wage for a sugar laborer in Brazil is 58 cents an hour, and in Guatemala it is 64 cents, compared with a minimum of $8.58 an hour in Florida.