Caribbean sugar producers clash with E.U.

Representatives of the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) bloc have called on the E.U. to continue a decades-old sugar agreement during future E.U. discussions. ACP countries want the E.U. to uphold the “Sugar Protocol” which was signed in 1975 and stipulates that E.U. states guarantee to buy and import agreed quantities of sugar at certain prices.

As David Jessop wrote in the Jamaica Gleaner, Caribbean countries worry that the E.U.’s proposed changes would hurt the region’s sugar industry:

“What seems to be little understood in Brussels is that the (E.U.) approach has the practical effect of undercutting existing commercial arrangements and the short- to medium-term assurances that those that extend finance to the industry require.

Producers in the Anglophone Caribbean also suggest that while they are comfortable with the decision to afford the Dominican Republic a 100,000 ton quota in the short term, the probability is that once there is duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market at lower prices, Santo Domingo's access may challenge the viability of sugar production in some parts of the region.”

However, the increased demand for ethanol production may offset any changes in trade for sugar-producing states:

“Developing countries that were expected not to survive in the open market are now optimistic once again. An example comes from Jamaica, where the depressing phrase "sugar is dead" is gradually disappearing from the vocabulary of globalization. What is more, the Jamaican government now even sees a "promising future" in the production of sugarcane-based ethanol and its potential to revitalize agriculture in this Caribbean nation.”

Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica are some of the Caribbean states in the ACP group.

Sources- Reuters Africa, acpsugar.org, Jamaica Gleaner, biopact, Wikipedia

Image- biopact