368. Memorandum From the Under Secretary of State for Economic and Agricultural Affairs (Wallis) to the Ambassador to the Mission to the Organization of American States (McCormack)1
SUBJECT
- Your Memorandum of September 12 About Sugar2
My understanding is that despite efforts by the Administration it has not been possible to find any member of Congress willing to introduce modifications in the sugar program. The judgment is that there is not the slightest chance, at least for the time being, that any modifications would be approved.
The sugar provisions were introduced, as I understand it, to influence the votes of four Louisiana congressmen in favor of the 1981 tax bill. Now, however, congressmen from corn growing states oppose repeal. The reason is that the high price of sugar has driven it out of much of our market—out of the entire soft drink industry, for example—and it has been replaced by high fructose corn syrup.
I believe that neither the President nor anyone else in the Administration is oblivious to his stated desire to get Congress to modify the sugar program.3 There is no chance of that being accomplished during this Congress, however.
- Source: Department of State, Executive Secretariat, S/S Files, 1986 Official Office Files, Action/Briefing/Information/Through Memoranda,/Chron Files/Memoranda to the Secretary Handled by (E) Economic Affairs Allen Wallis, Lot 89D156: AW—Chron, July/August/September 1986. Limited Official Use.↩
- The memorandum is attached but not printed. It raised the concern that sugar was a growing issue in the political relations between the U.S. and Latin American countries.↩
- See footnote 6, Document 344.↩
- Wallis initialed “AW” above his typed signature.↩