EU quota extension gives sugar industry chance to rebound – Dr Ramsammy

Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy

Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy said the European Union’s (EU) extension of the sugar quota into European markets is testimony to the relentless lobby by this country, noting that the grace period will give the ailing sugar industry some time to rebound.
Last week, the European parliament’s Agriculture Committee voted to maintain the bloc’s system of strict national sugar production quotas and minimum prices for sugar beet until 2020, rather than scrapping them from 2015 as proposed by the commission that would delay the lifting of an annual limit on EU sugar exports fixed under a World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement, currently set at 1.35 million tonnes.
This means that quotas for sugar from Guyana and other African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries will continue up to that period instead of ending in 2015 as originally envisaged. Committee members also weakened planned new environmental measures that farmers must take in order to qualify for a portion of their direct subsidies. The committee was voting on more than 8000 amendments to the draft legislation on CAP reform proposed by the commission in October, the highest number in the parliament’s history.
The current reform is the first time the parliament has a joint say on EU agriculture policy along with EU governments. The debate on CAP reform is taking place in parallel with talks between EU leaders on the bloc’s budget for 2014 to 2020, which is expected to include a cut of about 10 per cent in agricultural spending compared with the current budget period.
The prospect of less farm spending in future has led governments and the parliament to scale back some of the reforms proposed by the commission in an effort to mollify the powerful EU farm lobby.
“As minister of agriculture, I am delighted that the European parliament has voted to extend the sugar quota to 2020. It is sweet news for Guyana. It avoids another betrayal by the Europeans,” Ramsammy told Guyana Times International in an invited comment. He said the European Union was set to end the sugar quota in 2016.

Lobby
The present quota arrangement ends in 2015 and the European parliament was considering an extension only to 2016. Accordingly to the minister, Guyana joined other countries to lobby for an extension to 2020.
“Many considered that the lobby efforts were futile and that the Europeans were going to end the quota arrangement in 2016. Guyana believed we had a strong case and we vigorously presented our case for extension of the present sugar quota arrangements to 2020. There were many naysayers right in Guyana who believed we were wasting time.”
“Indeed, had the quota arrangement been ended so soon (in 2016), the European market would have been swamped with sugar from non-ACP countries which are not part of the quota arrangements, and this would have led to lower prices for Guyana’s sugar. We argued that the current adjustment of our sugar industry cannot be completed on time for a new dispensation in the sugar market,” the Minister said.
According to the minister, the full mechanisation of the sugar industry to lower cost of production and the strategy to adjust the production cycle to suit this climate change scenario, cannot be completed before 2016. Countries like Guyana need more time before their sugar industries are able to function effectively within a non-quota arrangement.
“In our view as ACP suppliers, a removal of quotas will open up the EU market to irregular swings with a negative effect on prices. As a result, we have been lobbying the EU member states and MEPs to maintain quotas to their farmers until 2020. The five year period is meant to allow us time to increase production and exports of raw or refined sugar, maximise use of the Accompanying Measures Support Programme (AMSP) aimed at improving competitiveness, productivity and diversification given the abolition of the Sugar Protocol and 36 per cent price cut in 2005 to 2006.”