African, Caribbean and Paci-fic (ACP) Ministers have agreed that the permanent shortfall of sugar from St Kitts and Nevis, as part of the ACP quota to the EU, would be retained by the Caribbean, the Guyana High Commis-sion in London announced in a press release yesterday.
The recommendation was made during the recent ACP Ministerial Special Consulta-tions on Sugar held in Brussels on Thursday.
Dr Henry Jeffrey, Minister of Foreign Trade and Interna-tional Cooperation, as Caricom’s spokesperson on Sugar, said that he was elated at the decision taken by ACP Ministers. He said further that the unanimous support of all 18 ACP Sugar Protocol Export suppliers was express-ed in favour of the Caribbean retaining the shortfall of 15,590 tonnes from St Kitts and Nevis, the release said.
Jeffrey noted also, it stated, that the ACP Ministers’ decision is a significant expression of solidarity within the ACP Sugar Consul-tative Group and augurs well for the intensive negotiations that will have to be undertaken with the European Commission with regard to securing a guaranteed remunerative price for the export of sugar to the EU in these very difficult times.
Jeffrey said further that what is also significant and of critical importance to Guyana and the rest of the ACP are the imminent discussions for front loading and timely disbursement of funds for the multi-annual plan to improve productivity and value-added output of the sugar sector in Guyana and other ACP countries.
Meanwhile, Guyana’s Ambassador to Brussels and the European Union, Dr Patrick Gomes, who is also a member of the ACP Ambassa-dorial Consultative Group on Sugar (SCG) welcomed the decision of the ACP Minis-ters. He recalled that preliminary discussions were undertaken on a study to examine appropriate options to secure tangible and intangible benefits of the Sugar Protocol in view of the Economic Part-nership Agreements (EPAs) that are expected to be completed by December this year.
The ambassador said that the SCG discussed the issue in consonance with the mandate given by the ACP Ministerial Consultations on Sugar held in Khartoum in December 2006 with a view to ensuring the viability and restructuring of Caribbean sugar industries and their contributions to sustainable development in the region.
Prior to attending the Brussels ACP Ministerial Consultations on Sugar, Jeffrey travelled to New Delhi to participate in an international seminar on ‘Saving Doha and Delivering Development’. The seminar was organized by the government of India, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Oxfam International, National Council for Applied Economic Research of India, and CUTS International.
