Caribbean appeals for retention of sugar subsidies

Three Caribbean trade ministers will visit Europe next week to lobby against an EU proposal to slash Caribbean sugar subsidies, an official said yesterday.

The trade ministers of Guyana, Jamaica and Belize – three major sugar producing nations – will travel to Brussels to meet EU officials, said Guyanese Foreign Trade Minister Clement Rohee. They will also meet officials in Britain and Poland.

EU nations are planning to cut subsidies to African, Caribbean and Pacific sugar producers in several phases starting next year. In the Caribbean, the first phase would come next year with a 20% price cut, followed by a 16% cut by 2007.

Caribbean trade unions say the move would devastate the island’s sugar industry, which employs about 40,000 people but has been in steady decline from years of government neglect, harsh weather and lack of investment.

Jamaican officials are lobbying European countries for a less drastic price cut and a 10-year implementation period to allow the industry to adjust.