(IARN) Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are calling on the Department of Commerce to lower the countervailing duties on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco. The push comes from the Court of International Trade’s recent remand of DOC’s subsidy calculation. “We ask that Commerce carefully consider and follow the Court’s decision in Commerce’s recalculation of the subsidy amount, both in its final determination in the investigation and its administrative review,” the Iowa delegation said in a letter. “Reducing the subsidy rate would provide welcome relief for U.S. farm suppliers and their customers, who are America’s family farmers.” Grassley and his colleagues cited promising preliminary findings from the DOC on potentially reducing the subsidy rate by about 5.5 percent. Since the Biden administration boosted duties on Moroccan phosphate fertilizers, their supply across the U.S. has dropped, placing an undue financial burden on farmers. The move drove already high input costs up even further.
