Caricom blasts EU sugar price proposal
Stabroek News
July 8, 2004
Caricom leaders last night rejected proposals for the reform of the European Union (EU) sugar regime which would see cuts as high as 37% in the price regional countries get for their sweetener under the ACP-EU Sugar Protocol.
The European Commission is presently considering a proposal by its Agriculture point man Franz Fischler and the matter was high on the agenda of the summit of Caricom Heads in Grenada which ended yesterday. In their communiqué released early this morning, Heads called on the European Commission to withdraw the proposals “and to ensure that the interests of the ACP sugar supplying countries are taken fully into account in the reform of the sugar regime”. Heads described the EU proposals as a betrayal of the commitments and guarantees which had been tendered by the EU to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries at the time of the negotiation of the protocol in 1975.
The communiqué argued that the proposed three-stage reduction in the sugar price “would result in an annual catastrophic loss of US$90M” for sugar-supplying countries from 2008. Guyana stands to lose between US$30M to US$35M per annum. This projected loss for the region, heads said, outstrips by 150% the aid that the EU has committed to regional programmes for the current five-year cycle. It was further noted by the heads that the EU price cut proposals would also affect the sugar supplied under the Special Preferential Sugar arrangement.
The Caricom heads argued that the region and other ACP countries have been excluded from any serious consideration in the Commission’s proposals.
“Heads of Government regarded the proposals for price reduction as an act of bad faith on the part of the European Commission… they condemned the disregard shown for the provisions of Article 36(4) of the Cotonou Agreement which commits the EU to safeguard the benefits derived from the Sugar Protocol in the review” of sugar trading arrangements.
According to the communiqué, the heads took note of the fact that EU sugar producers would be compensated for sixty per cent of the proposed price reduction while the ACP would receive none.
The Heads reiterated that the proposed assistance via the European Development Fund for ACP producers was completely inadequate.
The Heads affirmed that the Commission’s proposals call into question the seriousness of the EU commitment to the recently launched negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement be-tween the EU and the Caribbean.