By Daisy Ayliffe - 18th September 2005
The battle over planned EU sugar reforms began in earnest on Monday as agriculture ministers gathered for a special ACP-EU council on sugar.
The start of the two day debate was overshadowed by campaigners who protested against European Commission plans outside the EU Council building.
Oxfam and the WWF denounced the “scandalous system of sugar subsidies and trade barriers that has prevented many small farmers from working their way out of poverty and raising environmental standards.”
Plans to cut the guaranteed price of sugar by 39 per cent over two years from 2007 and offer 60 per cent compensation to farmers hit hardest by the reforms were unveiled by Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel in June.
The cuts to sugar price support – the first since 1968 – follow a successful WTO challenge of EU sugar subsidies by Brazil, Thailand and Australia.
The commission’s proposal came under fire from developing countries urging a longer timetable to ease the impact on economies which rely on EU sugar deals for up to 70 per cent of national output.
Oxfam and the WWF have demanded that the EU reforms its sugar regime in a way that benefits poor farmers and the environment.
They have called for less drastic change and more lenient price cuts for ACP countries.
When Fischer Boel unveiled the shake up in June, she predicted the move would create “bitterness.”
“As the person in charge of persuading the 25 EU governments to accept the reforms, I am fully aware of the battle that lies ahead But I am fully convinced there is no alternative,” Fischer Boel insisted.
But Oxfam spokesman Louis Bélanger rejected this assertion and claimed that there are other options.
“We want EU member states, led by the UK presidency, to have a serious change of direction and reject the commission’s radical reform,” he said on Monday.
EU sugar prices are currently four times higher than the global rate - and are protected by massive import tariffs.
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