U.S. increases sugar quota

In economic news, while the United States is working to kill the Caribbean banana industry it is at the same time providing price supports for the region’s sugar producers. A release from the U.S. embassy has announced a second increase in Belize’s sugar quota. The additional two thousand, two hundred and thirty four metric tons brings the total 1998 fiscal year allotment to almost seventeen thousand metric tons. Sugar sold to U.S. buyers under the quota fetches a price significantly higher than that available on the world market. The bulk of Belize’s sugar exports still go to the European Union under a similarly favorable arrangement.