OCR Text |
Show Sen. Moss Predicts Sugar Bill Will Be Introduced Soon Senator Frank E. Moss predicted pre-dicted Monday that an administration adminis-tration sugar bill that has the full support of the industry will be presented to Congress soon. "l am very optimistic that the bill will be non-controversial," he said. "After months of negotiations, the industry spokesmen and Department De-partment of Agriculture specialists special-ists are very close together on the important question of share of basic consumption to go to domestic growers," he said. Senator Moss said the industry originally asked that beet and mainland cane be allocated 61 percent of the basic consumption of 9,700,000 tons. The Department Depart-ment had suggested 57 per cent. He said that on the "growth" above 1 9,700,000 tons, the industry indus-try had asked 67 per cent, the Department had suggested 63 per cent. "They are now no more than two points apart on both items, at 61 and 59 on basic consumption consump-tion and 63 and 65 on growth. "It appears that the final figures fig-ures will be within one point of those desired by Utah beet sugar growers. These were 60 and 65, and I forcefully presented present-ed them to the White House during negotiations." The domestic allocation will be divided 75 per cent to beet, 25 per cent to mainland cane, he said. "We still have 60 days before the present Sugar Act expires. This should be enough time to enact a new bill, particularly if the domestic allocation is agreed to. "The sugar industry and the Department of Agriculture are to be congratulated on the excellent ex-cellent spirit of cooperation that has accompanied the discussion. "Congress of course, will make the decision on the percentages to go to domestic producers, but if the administration and the sugar refiners and growers are agreed on a quota, I expect Congress Con-gress to adopt it." The Senator said present thinking is to establish a Cuban quota reserve of one to two million mil-lion tons. This would go to Cuba in case of a Castro fall and the development of satisfactory relations re-lations with the U.S. For the present, this quota will be filled by additional allocations to other foreign suppliers. |