During his presentation at the ceremony yesterday, the President referred to the European Union (EU)’s recent proposals to reform the present sugar regime, under which ACP countries – including Guyana – currently receive preferential treatment for sugar exports.

Under the proposals, the EU plans to cut the price of sugar coming from certain nations by up to 37 per cent - a move that would see the loss of some US$90 million in revenue for sugar exporting countries within CARICOM.

While the proposals are going to affect beet sugar producers based in Europe as well, there are provisions within them which allow for compensations of up to 60 per cent for EU beet sugar producers.

President Jagdeo said he considered this move by the European Union as a betrayal by Europe.

“What is bad about this,” he said, “is that it is unilateral; it is an act of bad faith; and it is insensitive to the repercussions on the lives of our people.”

A section of a European Commission working paper on sugar policy reform, entitled `Impact on the ACP Countries’, notes that “[i]n social terms, the most negative consequences [of proposed reforms] will be felt where dependence on the sugar sector is strongest. In the hearing they were given, certain ACP countries stressed the multifunctional nature of its indirect social benefits.”

President Jagdeo said that there also needs to be a greater understanding locally of the possible impact of the proposals. He said that he was very disturbed that very often the intent of what the government is trying to do vis-à-vis the sugar industry was often construed by partisan interests as either racially or politically motivated.

“It is said that the government supports sugar because the workers are pro-PPP or they are Indo-Guyanese and it does not support bauxite because the workers may be pro-PNC and are Afro-Guyanese. That is far from the truth.”

He reiterated statements he made on Friday that his government has placed equal importance on the bauxite industry and the sugar industry.

President Jagdeo said that the scrapping of Guyana’s sugar industry is currently unfeasible as sugar accounts for 16 to 17 per cent of the GDP, is a major foreign currency earner and accounts for the largest employment force by a single industry. He said that sugar production affects the macro-economy since it impacts other sectors of industry as well as impacting on the social lives on many Guyanese.

“Sugar is important to the communities that surround the estates which receive a lot of benefits from the industry; sugar is important to drainage and irrigation especially since we live below sea-level.”

President Jagdeo said that the government was restructuring a number of industries including sugar, bauxite and tourism. He told the sugar workers that he wanted the sugar industry to last for not only them but for their children.

He said that he knew there was some anxiety concerning the possible closure of the Demerara estates, citing rumours that the government of Guyana had made a deal with World Bank to shut the estates down.

“The answer is no,” the president said, “you’re hearing it from me.”

He said that what needs to be done is a maximising of the output capacity of the estates since the cost of production within the Demerara estates was comparatively high in relation to the Berbice estates because of numerous factors, most of them outside of the sugar workers’ control. He, however, added the workers have a role in directly ensuring improved productivity.

He said that increased productivity would be well in line with the new thrust in supplying non-traditional markets with sugar. He cited the examples of Trinidad and Barbados. He said that Guyana currently supplies all of Barbados’ domestic sugar needs while it is practically doing the same for Trinidad and Tobago with only some competition from Colombian sugar.