Deeper sugar price, quota cuts fear

TOUGHER cuts in EU sugar prices and quotas are predicted, following the latest World Trade Organisation ruling against the Union’s subsidised sugar exports.

Last year the European Commission proposed price cuts of 37% for beet over three years and a 16% quota reduction over four years, with partial compensation for growers.

But this does not satisfy the latest WTO ruling, in which the EU was especially criticised for effectively subsidising exports of C sugar with the high prices it pays for A and B quota sugar, and for exempting 1.6m tonnes when calculating its volume of subsidised exports. The Australian trade minister Mark Vaile has claimed the EU will have to stop subsidising close to 4m tonnes of sugar exports a year.