Can Europe be trusted?
-Jagdeo cites recent sugar proposal
Stabroek News
July 3, 2004
President Bharrat Jagdeo says the European Union (EU) has been negotiating in bad faith with Caricom and other ACP countries and this will be discussed at the upcoming Heads of Government meeting in Grenada.
President Jagdeo was briefing reporters at his office yesterday just before his departure for the meeting. He recalled that "before the ink dried on the Cotonou Agreement on a new deal between the EU and ACP countries, Europe launched ...the Everything-But-Arms initiative which sought to undermine many of the guarantees that were given in the Cotonou Agreement and although we protested at that time it went through."
"...It goes beyond sugar, it is an issue of bad faith, and it is going to lead to a lack of trust. How can we trust any new position that Europe puts on the table, not only in the traditional ACP/EU relations but in the WTO, in those negotiations, can we really trust positions of Europe... will they really live up to those positions?" According to the president, they were given the assurance that sugar would be up for review in 2007/2008 when the current regime would remain in place.
"But suddenly this new surprise was sprung on us, as soon as we start this negotiation on the new economic partnership agreement we are faced with this proposal which will be presented to the European Commission to cut the price that we receive in Europe (for sugar)..."
The new proposal was formulated by the EU Farm Commissioner, Franz Fischler and if approved will see sugar prices dropping by 20% next year and down by a total of 33% in 2007.
The proposal has already been rejected by Chief Execu-tive Officer (CEO) of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC), Ian McDonald who viewed it as "unfair and illogical". Guysuco's Chief Executive, Michael Boast also stated that the proposal is bad news for Guyana as it could cost the firm US$200 per tonne of sugar, which on an export base of 167,000 tonnes would be equivalent to US$33M a year.
Yesterday President Jagdeo pointed out that the new proposal has a whole range of compensatory measures to address the concerns of the European firms. But in relation to the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of countries (ACP) only a passing reference is made that the European Development Fund (EDF) may put in place some compensatory measures.
"We have an experience with the EDF, even now many of our projects are slowed down.., the LEAP project in Linden, now we have to carry it from the Treasury because it takes about ninety days to turn around an invoice in Brussels. ...There is a huge inefficiency in Brussels (the headquarters of the European Community) in terms of turning around these invoices much less in terms of access...."
As a result Jagdeo said that the passing reference to the EDF means nothing to countries like Guyana.
To emphasise how seriously the EU proposal might impact on Guyana's income, Jagdeo pointed out that sugar contributes about 16% of Guyana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while it is about one-sixth of the country's foreign currency income and employs about 18,000 people directly and another 15,000 indirectly.
The president said should the proposal go forward then it could cost the country in excess of US$35M per annum.
Speaking on the Skeldon project, Jagdeo said it was intended to reduce the cost of sugar production and it was hoped that there would have been greater breathing space before any review of the current EU sugar regime.
According to the president the issue of sugar along with the status of Haiti within Caricom has the potential of dominating the agenda at the meeting. He stated that in terms of the troubled Caribbean country his government would be approaching the topic with an open mind and would be listening to the developments that have taken place since the issue was last discussed regionally.
He said they would listen to those who were sent to Haiti, as they would have to report as to their findings there in relation to other heads who have had interactions with the interim administration in that country.
Jagdeo announc-ed that he will be setting out a new framework for repositioning agriculture in the region.
"I think this is very important. We are a bit concerned that agriculture has not been getting the attention it deserved within Caricom. And the idea of this document is to seek to put agriculture back on the front burner..."
There are several other issues on the agenda to be discussed, some of which Guyana has been pushing for a long time and they include governance, a common fishing regime and the Cricket World Cup.
Guyana will be represented at the meeting by President Jagdeo, Foreign Affairs Minister, Rudy Insanally, Foreign Trade and Interna-tional Cooperation Minister, Clement Rohee and Ambassa-dor Elisabeth Harper.