(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) Guyana's Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Hon. Clement Rohee has suggested that the recent ruling by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Appellate Body on the European Union (EU) Sugar case has made the situation for sugar in the Caribbean more “worrisome”. Minister Rohee was at the time addressing the Second Meeting of Sugar Stakeholders being convened on Tuesday, 10 May 2005 in Georgetown, Guyana.
The Appellate Body has upheld the 2004 findings of a WTO Panel that: the European Commission (EC) has provided financial resources through cost-subsidisation exports; the EC's sugar exports are in excess of its export subsidies reduction commitments notified to the WTO; the EC has acted inconsistently with its obligation under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA); the EC's violation of the AoA has “nullified” and “impaired” the benefits “accruing to Australia, Brazil and Thailand.”
Guyana was a Third Party to both the original Panel and the Appellate Body. It made oral presentations in both instances and joined with the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in filing joint third participants' submissions.
Minister Rohee said CARICOM has been “ignored with respect to its demands for a fair and equitable deal, including a much less severe reduction in the price of Sugar, starting 2008 instead of 2006, and introduced over an eight year period rather than a three year period.”
The Caribbean's request for the establishment of a “Competitiveness Fund” he said has also fallen on “deaf ears”. In light of this and the European Commission's further refusal to provide funding for some fifteen sugar projects, proposed through the Intra-Association of ACP Cooperation, the Minister challenged stakeholders attending the Meeting to hold the EU Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson to his promise for an early EU assistance package to the Region to reduce the impact of the new Sugar Regime. Minister Rohee added, “I believe the time has come to end the shadow boxing with the Commission. We must engage frontally with the Trade Development and Agriculture Commissioners, since they have themselves expressed a desire to discuss these matters with us.”
The first Meeting of Sugar Stakeholders was held in September 2004 and since then many of the decisions adopted have either been implemented or are being vigorously pursued, the Minister noted. He added, “We have engaged in a successful lobbying exercise culminating with a historic Joint Declaration with the Spanish Authorities in the Reform of the Common Market Organisation (CMO) for Sugar.”
While pointing to the backing of a number of key EU Members States, the Minister called for further and deeper dialogue with the Caribbean Diaspora, and key influential international NGO's for greater support for the Region's position on Sugar.
The Sugar Meeting is expected to make recommendations on the way forward to the Ministerial Session of the Nineteenth Meeting of CARICOM's Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), which begins on Wednesday, 11 May in Georgetown.
