Support slow in coming after EU sugar reform - Odeen Ishmael

Support slow in coming after EU sugar reform – Odeen Ishmael

Feb 27, 2010 News

The Guyana Government is concerned over the European Union’s slow pace of delivery of accompanying measures under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which replaced the preferential sugar protocol once enjoyed by the Caribbean.
This is according to Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela, Odeen Ishmael. He said the strict conditions are restricting the disbursement of timely support to the sugar producing countries of the Caribbean whose economies are facing severe consequences arising from the 36 per cent price cuts by the EU on sugar.
Significantly, the full price cut, which took effect this year, will result in an annual loss to Guyana of US$34.1 million, Ishmael said.
He was speaking Thursday at a meeting of the Latin America Economic System (SELA), of which he is Chairman. SELA is preparing for the Madrid meeting between Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union, scheduled for this May.
Even before the last Summit, which was held in Lima, Peru, negotiations had started on an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and the CARIFORUM countries comprising Caricom and the Dominican Republic.
Negotiations were concluded in 2008 and the agreement was signed last year. This Agreement provides for substantial liberalisation of market access for both goods and services and replaces the non-reciprocal preferential trade arrangement which existed previously under the Lome and Cotonou conventions negotiated with the African-Caribbean-Pacific nations.
The Government of Guyana had expressed some reservations, since it felt the Agreement would create some vulnerabilities for its major sugar industry and the welfare of the sugar workers of the country, thus implying that the agreement is not totally fair.
“The Guyana Government felt then — and still feels – that the terms and conditions of trade with the EU must be fair and just, and expressed those views very clearly before and after it signed on to the EPA,” Ishmael noted.
In reality, he said Guyana is worse off now than before with the EPA.
He noted that the sugar producing countries of the Caribbean, which include Guyana, Barbados, Belize, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, have expressed their disappointment with the slow pace of disbursements of funds from the EU, which are intended to help in buffering the economies of sugar producing countries from the fall-out associated with the price cuts.
“The sugar producing countries want a trading regime with fair and stable prices and access to a secure and a predictable long term market in the EU, and this will surely be expressed at the Madrid summit,” said Ishmael.
The EU-LAC summit, which sees the participation of more than 60 countries, has a powerful international impact, Ishmael noted, saying the debate at the highest level identifies new development vistas for the participation of both regional groupings, and allows for the adoption of fresh initiatives to deal with the challenges of mutual economic assistance, trade and investment.
With regard to economic assistance, foreign direct investment from the European Union to Latin America and the Caribbean has proven to be of growing significance in the last two decades, Ishmael stated, while noting that on the other hand, bilateral trade between the two regions has suffered as a result of the international economic crisis.
SELA is a regional intergovernmental organisation that groups 27 Latin American and Caribbean countries. Its head office is in Caracas, Venezuela.

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