U.S. Republican Senator Roger Marshall has introduced a bill seeking to eliminate tariffs and countervailing duties (CVDs) on phosphate fertilizer imports from Morocco, delivering direct relief to American farmers crushed by rising input costs.
If adopted, the “Lowering Input Costs for American Farmers Act” will lower the cost of fertilizer for American farmers by over 20%, or roughly $150 a ton.
U.S. combined imports of DAP and MAP reached a record 1.85 million ton in 2018, but have averaged just 182,300 tons per year from 2021 – 2025, according to U.S. Commerce data.
U.S. phosphate prices have trended higher than historic norms since countervailing duties on imports from both Russia and Morocco were imposed in 2021 after US producer Mosaic complained against unfair competition of subsidized fertilizers flooding the U.S. market with extremely low prices.
Last month, sixty-four agricultural groups, including the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), have sent a letter to the chief executives of two of the nation’s largest domestic fertilizer producers, urging them to support the removal of duties placed on imported phosphate products from Morocco.
The Middle East conflict has led to increases in the prices of U.S. fertilizer, regardless of actual impact to the U.S. supply,” says the letter sent to Mosaic Company CEO Bruce Bodine and J.R. Simplot CEO Garrett Lofto.
“We strongly urge efforts to lower and stabilize prices by renouncing support of phosphate duties incurred through antidumping and countervailing duty investigations,” underlines U.S. farmers.