American Sugar Cane League President and General Manager Charles Melancon today joined the U.S. Sugar Industry Group in applauding the Bush Administration for its decision to exclude sugar from the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Australia.

“We believe that the campaign conducted by the American Sugar Cane League and sugar producers from other states against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) may have caused the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to reconsider the inclusion of sugar in the Australian agreement,” Melancon said. “The US sugar industry is still hopeful that the Bush Administration will reconsider the inclusion of sugar in CAFTA before it is delivered to Congress for a vote.”

Melancon’s comments came following the announcement that the United States and Australia reached a FTA, which will eliminate duties from more than 99 percent of manufactured exports to Australia and 97 percent of the manufactured goods that Australia sells to the United States. According to US trade officials, sugar was not part of the agreement.