Sugar Protocol under “attack”, say ACP Ministers
ACP States called for a joint review of the Sugar Protocol at their Brussels Ministerial Meeting, May 21–24, judging that the EU is about to “throw out the baby with the bathwater”, according to Arvin Boolell, Mauritian Minister for Fisheries and ACP Ministerial Spokesman on sugar.
Copyright 2006, SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan). www.worldmapper.org
He stressed that the Protocol continues to contribute to the overall economic development of ACP nations and the livelihoods of many people and was “a glowing example of North-South trade and a model to replicate”.
The Protocol, enshrined in successive Lomé and Cotonou Conventions, has traditionally guaranteed export quotas prices for 18 ACP sugar producers in the EU market.
The thrust of the European Commission’s latest offer on the table for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), made at the beginning of April, is to phase out guaranteed prices from 2009 with a gradual opening to competitors.
A resolution from ACP Ministers read that this move was: “tantamount to a unilateral renunciation of this longstanding trade and development instrument and is totally unacceptable”.
For ACP States exporting under the Protocol, the EC’s offer is a further blow for the industry. One year ago, EU Member States agreed a 36% cut in the price of sugar as part of a reform of the EU Sugar Regime over a four-year period, also affecting ACP States. George Bullen, Brussels Ambassador for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) who currently presides the ACP Consultative Group on sugar, says that this cut compounds the losses of ACP sugar exporters who already face mounting freight and insurance costs.
To offset its price cut, the European Commission pledged €1.24 billion over 8 years (2006–2013) for ‘Multi-Annual Adaptation Strategies (MAAS)’ benefiting ACP Sugar Protocol nations. Under these to date, 13 out of 18 sugar Protocol nations have negotiated a raft of measures, on the one hand to make the domestic sugar industry more competitive, with other funds to help diversify into other industries and also to lessen the social impact of the dissolving of the local industry on sugar dependent communities.
ACP Ministers called on annual pledges under the plan to be upped at least to €250 million. Arvin Boolell said that the EU was compelled to address the special legal status of the Protocol, its contributions to social, environmental and rural development and recalled: “No ACP country should feel worse off, but better off as a result of the EPAs”.
World Net Grocery Exporters
Mauritius and Fiji, encircled above, two of the biggest beneficiaries of the Protocol, stand out on this world map. Mauritius currently tops the world net export ranking for grocery exports, the bulk being sugar exports, worth an annual US$221 to every Mauritian with Fiji in third place, its exports in this category earning US$152 for every Fijian.
By no coincidence, Mauritius is the biggest exporter under the Cotonou Convention’s Sugar Protocol, with an annual export quota of 487,200 tonnes and, with a quota of 163,600 tonnes, Fiji is the second biggest exporter.
*‘Net exports’ refer to exports minus imports. ‘Groceries’ referred to in this map include sugar, honey, coffee, tea, mate (a tea-like drink), cocao, chocolate, spices, seeds for oils and cooking oils.
