Dumped and subsidized sugar from Mexico is still injuring U.S. growers, and Mexico has yet to be held accountable for its unfair trade actions.

Mexico has until June 5 to comply with U.S. trade laws, or antidumping and countervailing duties of 80 percent will be imposed to stop the damage being caused by the dumped and subsidized Mexican sugar.

Little has changed despite Mexico being found guilty of violating U.S. trade laws in 2015 that cost sugar growers from Texas and other states $2 billion in revenues as a result.

When the U.S. is flooded with refined sugar, it pushes down prices and hurts domestic refineries that depend on a constant supply of raw sugar.

Mexico agreed to a settlement, which allowed it to continue trading with the U.S. under conditions that were supposed to prevent unfair trading.

But the agreements have been ineffective and Mexico has refused to comply. That agreement failed, costing U.S. farmers another $2 billion in losses. The U.S. Department of Commerce is now negotiating changes to stop further injury, according to a Sugar Alliance press release.

As talks continue, officials from one of the nation’s largest raw sugar growers recently visited 20 congressional offices to update lawmakers and staff about bringing Mexico into compliance with U.S. trade law.

“We felt like too many people were incorrectly viewing this as a market access negotiation,” Sean Brashear, president and CEO of Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers, Inc., said.

Brashear explained this is not a trade “negotiation” but rather a “law enforcement issue.”

According to Agri-Pulse, commerce officials on May 1 walked away from talks with Mexico without a new deal on how to control the country’s sugar exports.

“Mexico was found guilty in a legal proceeding of using unfair trade practices. The trial is over. We are now in the sentencing phase,” Brashear said. “And a lot of people’s livelihoods are hanging in the balance.”

RGV Sugar Growers Inc. has been in business since 1973. The cooperative harvests, hauls, processes, markets and sells raw sugar for 112 farmers in South Texas. It employees 500 workers and makes enough electricity from sugar byproducts at peak efficiency to power the nearby town of Santa Rosa.

“Growers need confidence in the market before they can put a cane crop in the ground, and Mexico’s bad acts are shattering that confidence,” Brashear said. “Once farmers plant, they’ll have to maintain and harvest the crop for up to five years.”

Hawaii shut down its century-old sugar industry in December because of market disruption caused by Mexico, making future profitability uncertain. Brashear doesn’t want to see his mill and community suffer the same fate as the mills in Hawaii.

Brashear is hoping for strong action against Mexico to prevent future dumping of subsidized sugar. He is ready to compete on a level playing field and see fair and consistent prices.

“All I want to do is my part on educating members of Congress and our leaders so they can fight on our behalf,” Brashear said.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway and the panel’s top Democrat Collin Peterson also want to rein in Mexico.

“Suspension agreements that postponed the imposition of these duties, and were supposed to halt the dumping and the circumvention of U.S. cane sugar refineries, have failed,” Conaway and Peterson wrote in an open letter to other lawmakers.

Agri-Pulse reports that Mexico is rumored to be threatening to slap tariffs on U.S. shipments of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in retaliation for the U.S. refusing to budge. But there has been no concrete action yet.

Conaway and Peterson said that should not be an issue.

“Mexico has made such threats before—including tariffs on U.S. HFCS during 1997-2002 and a tax on sodas made with HFCS during 2002-2008—but those measures were found to be illegal by the World Trade Organization,” the lawmakers said in the letter.