President Trump declared a national emergency on June 29, invoking threats to the US food supply as justification for temporarily suspending duties on Moroccan phosphate fertilizer. The move, which lifts tariffs that have been in place since 2021, is designed to bring down input costs for American farmers and ease food inflation that has stubbornly persisted through supply chain disruptions.
The suspension covers countervailing and anti-dumping duties on phosphate fertilizer imports from Morocco for up to eight months. Those duties have typically ranged from 16-17%, a meaningful surcharge on a commodity that sits at the foundation of American agriculture.
Why phosphate matters more than you think
Morocco holds approximately 70% of global phosphate rock reserves. One country controls the overwhelming majority of a resource that every farmer on Earth depends on. The country’s state-owned company OCP is the dominant player in this trade.
The duties Trump just suspended were originally imposed in March 2021, following a petition by US producer The Mosaic Company. The argument at the time was straightforward: Moroccan phosphate was being sold at unfairly low prices, undercutting domestic producers. The US International Trade Commission and the Commerce Department agreed, and the tariffs went into effect.
