Administered by USDA, program regulations allow cane refiners and food manufacturers, subject to certain conditions, to import sugar exempt from tariff-rate quota provisions that apply to sugar imported for consumption in the U.S. market. Cane refiners process the imported sugar into refined sugar for re-export, or for transfer to food manufacturers for use in sugar-containing products for export. These programs were designed in the early 1980s to utilize excess cane refining capacity and to make U.S. refined sugar and sugar-containing products more competitive on the world market by allowing participating companies to have access to lower world-priced sugar.