U.S. resumes probe on sugar imports from Mexico

(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Commerce is resuming anti-dumping, countervailing investigations on sugar imports from Mexico in response to requests to continue the probe, according to a notice published on its website on Monday.

The department will continue the investigations after receiving timely responses to do so, the notice said.

The Commerce Department suspended the investigations in December after signing a deal with Mexico that established floor prices and a quota for imports. However, two U.S. cane refiners requested that the department reopen the probe.

The deal suspended prohibitive duties on imports of sugar from Mexico that the department levied last year in preliminary determinations during the probe.

Those anti-dumping and countervailing duties will not resume as the department continues the investigations, a Commerce spokeswoman said.

The refiners, Louis Dreyfus Commodities BV’s Imperial Sugar Co and AmCane Sugar LLC separately launched the appeals process on Friday after the U.S. International Trade Commission approved the December deal, which they say will hurt their businesses.

The United States and Mexico have been embroiled in a year-long dispute over low-priced imports that U.S. sugar farmers and companies said were flooding the market.

The Commerce Department said it plans to make a final determination on its investigations within 135 days