The U.S. government has pursued bilateral and multilateral trade liberalization in various agreements for decades. In that context, the intensely protectionist U.S. sugar program has clearly reduced the potential positive economic impacts of the trade agreements ultimately implemented over the last 25 years. The sugar industry has consistently urged U.S. trade negotiators to hold fast against any significant concessions on foreign access to the domestic sugar market. Unfortunately, once the United States tells other countries in trade negotiations that the sugar program is sacrosanct, those countries are then free to hold out against market access concessions on their own sensitive agricultural sectors.