Brazzil

"So not only are American consumers paying over twice the world price for sugar, while their government effectively stomps on the chances for economic development of significant parts of the Caribbean and Latin America, but the diversion of a large proportion of corn towards syrup and ethanol production is raising American and world corn prices. Milton Friedman would not have approved.

Mr Williams

This is truly rich, coming from a UK paper.

The US, in fact, imports sugar from the Caribbean and Latin America, at higher than market prices. In contrast, the EU dumps very heavily subsidized sugar on the world market, making it difficult for the Caribbean and Latin American countries to compete

from Oxfam
"Subsidised European exports have led to lower prices on the world market, and reduced export opportunities for other exporters. Oxfam has estimated that EU sugar export dumping translated into foreign exchange losses in the region of $494m for Brazil, $151m for Thailand, and $60m each for South Africa and India in 2002.1"

re
"
The American companies concerned are fighting any attempt to reduce or remove the 54 cents a gallon ethanol tariff. Their spokesman told Businessweek that the tariff offsets the 51 cents a gallon tax credit for biofuels - making it fairly plain that the purpose of the tax credit was not to encourage better use of renewables but to boost the bottom line of Archer Daniels Midland and their colleagues."

And what is the UK and EU's tariff on Brazilian ethanol? As far as I can tell, it's around 87 cents a gallon, although I've seen different figures online.

http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/8654/a/77042

While ADM will of course make money from this, so are US farmers who are now making a lot more money from their corn production.

Meanwhile, the EU is proposing binding regulations mandating 10 of all fuel be biofuels. Who is going to benefit from that?

Well the trouble with using corn for ethanol is it is raping the top soil of the midwest. The U.S. is often foolish but not a fool. Brazilian ethanol is the wave of the future, surfing began in Malibu, yeh ok Hawaii.
Sugar is dead it is dead in Hawaii all the sugarcane fields in Hawaii are now housing developments. The mainland is not far behind. There is better use for domestic sugar acerage and the vox populi is sick of farm subsidies that are minlessly corrupt. The ethanol issue will put a new dog in the fight for the press as well as politicians. And ADM's time has come. Let them go the way of Enron, they are a bunch of morally corrupt savy players, but the times are changing. . .who knew that ethanol was the wave of the future and the Brazil was the 'big Kahuna'?

Renewable bio-fuels are good for the carbon cycle and global warming, and reduce dependence on fossil fuel which tends to come from countries whose rulers get uppity with Washington

Well, it also is controlled by just a few farmers and the government (sounds like a new oil cartel to me), pollutes the soil and nearby water tables because of the fert. and bug pesticides inevitably used in its production, and I reaaly cant wait to see large tracks of the amazon torn up to make more bio fuel...

be careful, people, this is not necessarily the way (wind,solar, nuclear are better options). Even hydrogen needs fossil fuels t make in order for it to burn clean!

and I reaaly cant wait to see large tracks of the amazon torn up to make more bio fuel

Keep repeating that, until it becomes truth. The deforestation diminished by 50% in the last years, and the policies and laws in place will make it decline even further.

This is typical from someone that can't understand that the Sao Paulo is not in the middle of the amazon.

And your story is so thoughtful, so obviously unbiased, so intuitive in Brazilian affairs, it´s no wonder that your writing is in such demand.

From the Amazon, where as far as I know no alcohol is being produced in commercial scale, best wishes.

smell it (.....o.....) pppprrrrrrrrrrrr!

This article is really good because it begins to tie the U.S. sugar lobby in with the U.S. ethanol lobby. Funny that none
of the three main sugar-cane growing areas in the U.S. - South Florida, Louisiana and Hawaii - can seem to put
together the wherewithal to produce sugar-based ethanol while the price of corn has almost doubled in the last year
and 200-acre farms in Iowa are selling for around $1 million U.S. Alexander & Baldwin, which owns something like
90,000 acres in Hawaii and is the islands's main sugar producer, says that its efforts to make commercial ethanol from the
molasses byproduct of its sugar operation has failed. Can't they license Brasilian technology? What is going on?

Don't trust them Brazil...they're f**king theiving bastards are the Americans. AND THEY f**kIN DESRVED 9/11

It looks like your ethanol intake is doing very well indeed.

Brazil spent 30 years subsidizing their ethanol industry and raising tariffs to protect it. When other countries try to do the same, they say it is unfair. Ridiculous

The US-Brazilian partnership is a good thing overall. This piece raises somevalid issues about protectionism of American sugar. The problem is many of the same people who are calling for a switch to alternative fuels and rail against Bush are also protectionists. They can't have it both ways. We should remove the tariff on imported ethanol and sugar to speed the conversion away from fossil fuels.

"AND THEY F**KIN DESRVED 9/11 "

Yankssuk is a total a*****e. What kind of person glorifies mass murder?

Certainly Impressed by Your Bio, Ian
written by Ric, 2007-03-08 11:45:40

Quite impressive Ric. Especially those "bylines" in Hustler and Penthouse. Or was that supposed to be "Bi-lines"? That movie about drugged out college students that find out they have an affinity for their same sex as well.

Starts with the premise that Bush wants to keep Brazlian ethanol out of the USA. Next, an attempt at humor. World running out of oil, not yet its not.

Debatable paragraph followed by two more, etc etc, then it becomes apparent he had a couple of issues to get off his chest, and a deadline coming, and he saw this event as a win-win.

Where do they find these guys?

15?????????
moron?????????
Texan?????????

@Ric
OPS! My bad!!!