A couple of ideas: 1. There are strategic reasons for a country to maintain a strong agricultural sector in case of international instability, war... etc. In t

A couple of ideas: 1. There are strategic reasons for a country to maintain a strong agricultural sector in case of international instability, war... etc. In today's economy we can't be 100% independent, but we still need some level of independence we wouldn't get without government intervention. 2. Other countries are undercutting our prices for reasons we find unethical: extremely low wages, inhuman working conditions, literal slavery... etc. We can't control other countries directly on these fronts, but we can at least ensure that we do not contribute to those practices ourselves. 3. Other countries are driving prices down through government subsidies in a bid to gain control of the market, and our tariffs compensate for that. I have no clue whether these reasons apply to sugar specifically, or whether the US policy on these questions is proportional and effective. But at least it illustrates that there are reasons why a policy like that makes sense for the country as a whole (and not just for sugar producers).