Europe’s betrayal


Sugar producing countries in the Caribbean, Africa and the Pacific feel betrayed after the European Union (EU) went ahead last week and implemented huge cuts on sugar despite pleas from all fronts about the adverse impact this would have on their sugar industry.


The EU, by its actions, once again raises doubts about the sincerity of rich countries in helping advance the development of poor nations, during what supposedly are global trade talks centered on development.


It also raises the question as to whether the EU on the eve of the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial wants to show the US, Japan and big developing countries they can disregard commitments to the small producers from the ACP as a bargaining chip to show they are reducing subsidies to their farmers.


Affected countries in the ACP are already predicting a negative blow to their sugar industries and economies.


In fact, the ACP and G90 in a separate meeting in Brussels last week gave a stern warning to EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson that they were betrayed by the EU’s Council of Agriculture Ministers who sold them out by throwing almost five billion euros to European beet farmers with the agreement to cut the price of sugar by 36%.


CHEAP SUGAR


At the meeting Guyana’s Minister of Foreign trade, Clement Rohee, questioned whether Europe wants a genuine partnership with ACP countries now that the over supply of "cheap" sugar from Brazil and the strong French farmers’ lobby is imminent.


The drastic cut of 36 percent will bring estimated losses of 300 million Euros to the 18 ACP exporters, including six from the Caribbean.


Mandelson, however, trying to placate a G90 meeting, blamed the WTO for the pressures but urged them to act decisively to ensure that the interests of all developing countries are strongly defended in the WTO Ministerial in Hong Kong in the next two weeks.


He said while he fully understood the concerns about the social and economic impact which these reforms will have on ACP countries, "these changes were inevitable since they were forced on us by WTO."


"We have tried to minimise the negative consequences but obviously we will need to do more in terms of providing economic support for easing the adjustments. The EU is committed to that," he said.


"On sugar, we have already committed 40 million euros. But more will be possible in the future after 2006, depending on the adoption of our financial perspectives."


There is already speculation that with the ACP being quite upset over the latest cuts — first in bananas and now sugar, the entire agriculture negotiations in Hong Kong will be in disarray.


"The EU cannot expect to progress in Hong Kong at the expense of the ACP," according to George Bullen, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Ambassador to Brussels and chairman of the ACP Consultative Group on Sugar.


Caribbean Heads are also signalling that preferential access to markets in the EU for bananas and sugar will be an important plank for the region’s positions at the Hong Kong Ministerial.


"Long-standing preferences constitute a vital concern for the ACP as a whole, and the Caribbean has supported the Group’s position to not join any consensus decision on Agriculture (in WTO talks) unless the erosion of preferences is effectively addressed, through concrete and meaningful measures to mitigate the impact of reform on the preference receiving countries. Failure to do so would impose a disproportionate share of the costs of reform on some of the poorest and more vulnerable Members of the WTO," Minister Rohee said.


RECONSIDER CUTS


Caribbean leaders are urging the EU to reconsider the 36 percent cut in the price for sugar exports over a four-year period and to agree to consultations for adequate arrangements for ACP countries that reliably supplied sugar to the EU for more than a quarter of a century.


Expressing their alarm at the price cut, the leaders called on the EU "even at this late hour, to observe the letter and spirit of the ACP-EU Agreements" and reminded the EU that at the signing of the Sugar Protocol, the ACP States accepted a price less than half of what was the then world market price, in the spirit of a long-term commercial agreement.


Noting that the latest decision on sugar did not augur well for future trade agreements, Caribbean leaders said with it coming on the eve of the Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting, it raises troubling questions about the reliability of any commitments and agreements emerging from it.

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