Guyana and other sugar producers in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping are still to receive the 40 million euros from the European Union to cushion the effects of the price cut in sugar on the European market.
The price cut took effect last July and the Caribbean sugar stakeholders, at their fourth annual meeting held in the conference room of the Caricom Secretariat yesterday, emphasised the need for the rapid disbursements and frontloading of the funding for the action plans.
Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Dr Henry Jeffrey, who chaired the meeting, told the media yesterday that it was imperative that sugar stakeholders emphasize the importance of disbursing the funds beforehand to ensure that the plans begin to take form even before more cuts are made. “To date no one has drawn down on this 40 million euros,” Jeffrey said.
The regional stakeholders welcomed the EU’s announcement that the sum of 1.2 billion euros would be provided to the ACP countries from 2006/2007 to 2012/2013 as accompanying measures to the price cut. To date no funds have been disbursed.
Jeffrey said it would be difficult for countries to begin financing their action plans and to meet the employment needs of people who would otherwise be displaced based on funds allocated but not disbursed. One of Guyana’s modernisation strategies for the industry is the upgrading of the Guyana Sugar Corporation packaging plant at Leonora and this has begun.
The issue of the disbursement of funds by the EU “was a perennial problem,” Jeffrey said noting that it was not only now a case for sugar but in the past it has been so with rice, rum and bananas.
Following the loss of market for bananas, only 30% of the funds allocated as accompanying measures for the banana industry have been paid. The funding was announced six years ago.
He said that one of the reasons for the delays may be because of the EU’s insistence on consultancies that are not considered sensible or productive in the Caribbean sense.
Noting that the EU does not like to pay retroactively, Jeffrey said the Caribbean sugar stakeholders were looking at various alternative mechanisms in dealing with the issue.
Meanwhile, the issue of the shortfalls in sugar quotas remaining in the region was once again a major issue with stakeholders insisting that they have a strong case for keeping the 15,000-tonne shortfall in the St Kitts and Nevis quota to the European Union in the region to buttress the industry given the falling price of the commodity. Sugar is due for another price cut in July and two major cuts in the following two years. Additionally, the region is currently in a single market union moving towards a single economy.
Jeffrey said Caricom producers are also asking the United States to keep the 25,000 tonnes shortfall from Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago within the Caribbean. He said the shortfall could be filled by the other sugar producing countries – Guyana, Jamaica and Belize. The Caribbean’s quota to the US is 70,000 tonnes. Meanwhile, Jeffrey also told Stabroek News that discussions on a Caricom sugar policy focused on a sugar cane industry with emphasis on the diversification of the industry.
According to the communiqu
