ACP bloc seeks unity over EU's sugar reform plan
September 23, 2005
Kisumu, Kenya - Europe's former colonies said yesterday that they were not making much progress in convincing the EU to be flexible in sugar policy reforms they feared would rip apart their societies and harm their fragile economies.
Ministers and other officials from the EU's traditional sugar suppliers in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) were meeting in Kenya's lakeside town of Kisumu to devise ways to push the bloc to amend its plans and protect their interests.
The EU is considering a proposal from the European Commission to reform the sugar regime, barely changed in nearly 40 years, by slashing minimum price and production quotas.
"They don't take us seriously," Brian Bowler, the Malawi ambassador to the EU, told the Kisumu meeting. "We make proposals, they note them, but they do not enshrine them in any policies."
Bowler said it was time ACP ministers took a tougher position and enlisted presidents to convince the EU to change its mind.
The 18-strong ACP group, mostly former territories of the UK, France and Portugal, has enjoyed duty-free deals allowing them to send 1.3 million tons of raw sugar at fixed prices to the EU each year. Those prices may now fall by about 40 percent.
ACP countries say the reforms are too deep and fast, and may kill their sugar industries, worsening poverty and violently disrupting society. Collapse of their industries could also hurt them at the polls, ACP leaders fear.
"The stakes are high and this is a testing time for all of us," said Mauritian agriculture minister and ACP spokesperson Arvin Boolell. "It is only by acting with unity of purpose in defence of this vital trade and development instrument that we can assure a bright future for our sugar industry."
ACP countries said they were ready to embrace change for the sugar industry to be more competitive but needed more time.
Boolell and other leading ACP ministers met EU ministers on Monday to push for the EU to slow down on the reforms, reduce the proposed price cut and substantially increase assistance.
The EU has offered E40 million (R310 million) for 2006 to compensate ACP countries for their losses, with nothing concrete on the table yet for future years. Officials said the offer was too little.
-From Reuters
|
|
