Second-tier Mexican sugar is a term in international trade referring to over-quota sugar exported by Mexico to the United States, subject to a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) tariff that declined 1.5¢/lb.
for refined sugar, each year until it entered the United States without a tariff, effective January 1, 2008.
In the period prior to the end of the tariff for Mexican sugar, it became price competitive in the U. S. market whenever the applicable tariff, when added to the world market sugar price, plus the cost of transporting it from Mexico to U.S. Gulf ports (about 1.5¢/lb.
), was below the loan forfeiture price support level created by the U.S. sugar program.
The tariff is set under the treaty agreements embodied in the United States participation in the World Trade Organization.