P.M. BRIEFING : U.S. Extends Sugar Import Quota

WASHINGTON —  Agriculture Secretary Clayton K. Yeutter announced today a nine-month extension of the current sugar import quota year and an increase of about 860,000 tons in the amount of foreign sugar that can be imported.

Import quotas are used to protect domestic producers from cheaper foreign sugar being dumped on the U.S. market.

The original 1989 quota year began Jan. 1 and was to have ended Dec. 31. The extension lets the quota year run through Sept. 30, 1990.

Yeutter said the change in the quota was “an action independent” of a ruling earlier this year by the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that the U.S. sugar import quotas are in violation of international trading rules.