Blair ... has put his support behind the proposal to phase in the EU sugar tariff. - REUTERS
BRUSSELS/GEORGETOWN (AP):
BRITISH PRIME Minister Tony Blair promised to ease the impact of the European Union's (EU) planned cut in sugar prices for Caribbean producers by slowly phasing in tariff reforms, the Guyanese Government said yesterday.
But the proposal was met with resistance at a meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers from the Netherlands, Finland and Poland yesterday.
Failure to reach a deal could cause the EU severe embarrassment at next month's world trade talks, which are aiming to open up global agriculture markets to competition.
Blair, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, met with 10 Caribbean leaders, including Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, yesterday.
The British Prime Minister promised that his government "will seek to lengthen the transitional period for the EU sugar reform proposal, push for an increase in transitional assistance and examine the issue of greater market access for the Caribbean," Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo's office said in a statement.
It was not known whether leaders discussed the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) trade group's proposal to soften the price reduction to 19 per cent from 39 per cent.
The EU has offered the 19 ACP sugar producers US$40 million to help cushion the impact of reform, but the ACP this month called the compensation "paltry."
MASSIVE ACP LOSSES
Total losses in export earnings for the ACP sugar group would be up to US$352 million a year, the organisation said. Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad - the Caribbean's leading sugar producers - say they will lose US$110 million annually if prices are slashed 39 per cent.
The Netherlands, Finland and Poland were quick to demand changes to a new proposal presented by Britain's Farm Minister Margaret Beckett.
She stuck to European Commission plans that would see prices fall by 39 per cent, but proposed the measures should be phased in over a four-year period starting in 2006.
The EU has proposed to slash the price of sugar by 39 per cent beginning next year, but sugar producers in the 78-nation ACP last week presented a proposal to EU agriculture ministers for a 19 per cent reduction.
"It's a step in the right direction, but it's not an answer to all the worries we have," said Finnish Agriculture Minister Juha Korkeaoja.
Finland and the Netherlands voiced concern that the proposal gave little aid to those who will lose their jobs due to the restructuring. Poland said it would need clarification on the implications for its industry, which is the third largest producer of sugar in the EU.
Italy, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Hungary, Lithuania, and Latvia were other vocal opponents to the reform, arguing it will decimate their sugar beet farmers. Under EU rules, they currently
constitute a so-called blocking minority.
