Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume XXXVIII, International Economic Development; International Debt; Foreign Assistance

384. Letter From the Acting President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Powell) to Representative Tom Lewis¹

Washington, December 1, 1987

Dear Congressman Lewis:

This responds to your letter to Frank Carlucci dated October 21, 1987,² concerning imports of sugar blends. You urge that imports of sugar blend products be restricted to avoid damage to the U.S. sugar program and to the foreign exchange receipts of important sugar-producing countries.

I can assure you that we in the Administration are alert to this problem and will be considering it carefully over the next few weeks as we review options for next year’s sugar import quota. We believe, however, that over the longer term increased restriction of imports of sugar and sugar-containing products is not the answer. Rather, the U.S. sugar program must be altered to bring domestic sugar prices into better alignment with world prices. Legislation introduced by Congressman Porter (H.R. 2017) would achieve that objective.³

Sincerely,

Colin L. Powell
Acting Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

1. Source: Reagan Library, Stephen Farrar Files, Chronological File, Farrar Chron December 1987; NLR–177–7–9–2–7. No classification marking.
2. Attached but not printed.
3. A reference to the Sugar Program Improvement Act of 1987, which Porter introduced on April 8.