The U.S. International Trade Commission this week unanimously voted to reject anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago.
This decision means that American farmers won’t have to pay additional costs on fertilizer from those countries.
The ruling was welcomed by farmers and ranchers, as well as agricultural groups like American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and Texas Farm Bureau.
“AFBF is pleased the U.S. International Trade Commission did as we asked by rejecting the Commerce Department’s proposal to impose tariffs on imports of UAN, a key fertilizer,” AFBF President Zippy Duvall said in a statement. “Skyrocketing supply costs are already forcing some farmers into the red. The cost of fertilizer increased more than 60% from 2021 to 2022, and that’s not sustainable.”
In 2021, the leading importers of UAN into the U.S. were Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, Algeria and the Netherlands.
“We appreciate the commission’s recognition that adding unnecessary import costs would have made it difficult for farmers to access an affordable supply of this crucial nutrient at a time when America’s farmers are being called on to meet growing demand here at home and abroad,” Duvall said.
Moving forward, more fertilizer imports should enter the U.S., which will have an impact on prices.
“We should start seeing some more product come into the U.S. from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago, and that should have an impact on prices,” Dave Salmonsen, AFBF senior director of Government Affairs, said. “About 80% of all of our UAN imports were coming from those two countries, so we definitely, over time now, should start to see some more products move from overseas into the U.S. market now that they’re not having the threat of these import duties placed on them.”