China and Brazil have reached agreement on deep cuts in tariffs on Chinese imports of sugar, the Brazilian sugar industry association, Unica, says.

Unica issued a written statement saying China will set its tariff on the first 1.95 million tonnes of sugar it imports each year at 15 percent, and cut its tariff on imports greater than that quota to 50 percent from 85 percent.

Unica says China has let the rules it set in 2017 lapse on Friday, and that Brazil has dropped its demand for an investigation of those rules by the World Trade Organization.

The lapsing of the Chinese rules means Chinese imports of Brazilian sugar should grow from 1.3 million tonnes in 2019/2020 to over 2.5 million tonnes a year, about the same amount as before the rules were set, Unica forecasts.