Stand with U.S. Farmers website launched to raise awareness
OCP North America, a subsidiary of global fertilizer leader OCP S.A., of Morocco, has announced the launch of www.Standwithusfarmers.com. The new website aims to promote awareness and action in response to the threat to US farmers posed by substantial import duties recently imposed by the US Department of Commerce on imports of the phosphate fertilizers on which American farmers depend.
The new duties are the direct result of a trade petition by American fertilizer giant The Mosaic Company. Already controlling more than 70 percent of the U.S. phosphate fertilizer market, Mosaic petitioned the US Department of Commerce and US International Trade Commission in June to impose substantial duties of over 70% on Moroccan and Russian imports, alleging that its own poor business performance in the US was caused by imports from two countries who are Mosaic’s main competitors in the US Mosaic seeks to reap the benefits of dramatically reduced competition while US farmers suffer.
As is fairly routine in such cases, Commerce agreed to impose duties on a preliminary basis in advance of the final phase of the Commerce process undertaken in response to the Mosaic petition. Specifically, Commerce imposed a preliminary duty of 23.46 percent on US imports from the OCP Group in Morocco, and preliminary duties of 20 to 72.5 percent on certain Russian imports, effective December 1.
The preliminary duty announcement is already impacting fertilizer availability in US markets. It’s also substantially affecting costs for U.S. farmers at a time when they are struggling to recover from a multi-year downturn in farm economics, made only worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Industry analysts have noted that import supplies have plummeted, creating a “supply shock” that has driven phosphate fertilizer costs to rise more than 25% at the farm gate.
