More Duties on Fertilizers

The American Farm Bureau reports the U.S. Department of Commerce will impose preliminary anit-dumping duties on imports of urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) from Russia and Trinidad/Tobago. The preliminary duties on Russian imports will range from 9.15-127.9 percent. Imports from Trinidad/Tobago will be assessed a duty of 63.08 percent. The duties are in addition to countervailing duties announced in December.

The imposition of duties come in response to a petition filed by CF Industries arguing the fertilizer industry has been harmed by unfairly subsidized UAN imports. The department’s decision to impose duties means it found merit with the argument and agreed UAN is being unfairly dumped into the U.S. The American Farm Bureau says imports account for approximately 30 percent of U.S. nitrogen use and Russia and Trinidad/Tobago accounted for 81 percent of U.S. imports of UAN in 2020.

Producers are already facing record high prices for fertilizer this year. The decision by the Commerce Department can only exacerbate the situation.