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US food aid remains unreformed
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German President launches “Partnership with Africa”
New German government agrees on development policy
Kortmann becomes Parliamentary Secretary
ACP countries criticise EU Partnership Agreements
Africa looses out in apparel competition
Reforming EU’s sugar regulations
12/2005
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[ Sugar ]
Reform of EU regulation draws near
On 22 November, European Union Ministers of Agriculture met to conclude debate on the reform of the EU sugar regime. In summer, a World Trade Organisation (WTO) panel had ordered the EU to drastically reduce subsidised sugar exports (see E+Z/D+C 6/2005, p. 225). Shortly afterwards, Mariann Fischer Boel, EU Commissioner for Agriculture, presented a draft for reform, the central notion of which was a 39 % cut in the EU’s guaranteed price. That reduction would stem overproduction in Europe. However, such a step would also affect those countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific region (ACP) that are linked with the EU through the so-called sugar protocol. According to the protocol, the EU is obliged to purchase a specified quantity of sugar at the European guaranteed price.
While farmers in the EU will receive compensation for 60 % of the price cuts, the support programme for ACP countries only provides for ¤ 40 million next year – not even 10 % of the anticipated losses in income amounting to ¤ 500 million per annum. At a discussion meeting – organised by the Joint Conference Church and Development, among others – in Berlin at the beginning of November, Reuben Matango, chairman of the Association of Tanzanian Sugar Beet Farmers, asked for the support to be extended from the planned four years to at least eight to ten years. “We cannot make the industry in our country competitive enough to catch up from one day to the next,” he said.
Sugar exporters from the group of least developed countries (LDC), which are not members of the sugar protocol, would also be affected. They would receive no compensation at all and are afraid of no longer being able to compete with European producers and of being driven out of the European market. This goes against the spirit of the “Everything but Arms” initiative, which allows the poorest countries unlimited duty-free exports of sugar to Europe from 2009. Karin Ulmer of APRODEV (the Association of World Council of Churches related development organisations in Europe) is therefore calling on the European Commission to accept the LDCs’ offer to negotiate about voluntary restrictions in the form of supply quotas or restricting land for cultivation.
Alexis Valquí of the trade section in the German Development Ministry mentioned in Berlin that only a few ACP countries benefit from the current regime. Other developing countries that do not have supply quotas suffer from the low world market prices, which are depressed not least because of the high level of EU exports. In a joint statement, the German sections of Oxfam and the World Wide Fund as well as the Protestant Church Development Service appealed to the EU Trade Ministers to find a solution that would not harm poor countries. Marita Wiggerthale of Oxfam maintained that sugar price cuts should be more moderate, and compensation for ACP famers should be increased. (ell/sri)
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