John Myers, Staff Reporter
BRUSSELS, Belgium:
JAMAICA AND other African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are to get more financial support from the European Union (EU) as it prepares to implement its Sugar Reform Policy.
The policy will see a 36 per cent reduction over four years in the price for sugar coming from the region.
The announcement, by the EU's Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson on Wednesday, came during a press conference with journalists from the Caribbean and Latin America at the EU's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
GREATER ALLOCATION
"I am glad to say that in the recent fortnight we have successfully argued for and won a greater allocation to the sugar action plan and we will stand by that," Mr. Mandelson said ahead of the fourth EU/Latin America and the Caribbean Summit in Vienna, Austria.
He, however, did not say how much more would be provided to ACP countries under the Sugar Action Plan but emphasised that the EU will honour its commitment to assist the Caribbean governments reform their economies.
"We in the EU are highly sensitive to the challenges of development in the Caribbean ... and some of the difficult issues of restructuring which Caribbean countries are struggling with and there will be help to the region to manage this economic change," Mr. Mandelson said.
He said further that the EU would not "retreat" from its vow to assist ACP countries.
"... We will be there practically, politically and financially to give the assistance that Caribbean countries merit and deserve," he added.
The announcement has brought a successful end to months of intensive lobbying from ACP producers, especially in the Caribbean, who have complained that the financial assistance was not enough to help with reforming their banana and sugar industries.
The EU Trade Commissioner also announced that there would be no further reductions in the tariff on bananas coming from non-ACP countries.
"We are testing the market with the current tariff levels," he told The Gleaner. "I think the indication so far is that this tariff level is passing those tests."
Mr. Mandelson said however that the EU was still assessing the market's reaction to the current tariff level of 176 euros per tonne.
ACP countries have been forced to accept lower prices for sugar and bananas from the EU as it ends years of preferential treatment in the face of pressure from the World Trade Organisation (WTO), amidst complaints from non-ACP countries. The new trade arrangements have brought high-cost ACP producers closer in line with low cost producers from Latin America, in the case of bananas, and Brazil and Australia in the case of sugar.
The EU-Latin America and Caribbean Summit, which began yesterday, is to focus on furthering regional integration, multi-lateralism and trade among the EU and Latin and Caribbean countries, among other issues. Senator Anthony Hylton, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, is to represent Jamaica at the Summit.
