By JYOTI PRATIBHA
The European Union is convinced that the ending of the quota system will be a winning situation for the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
The European Commission Deputy Director General Development Co-operation, Marcus Cornaro, who arrived into the country to be part of the 13th ACP ministerial conference on sugar, said quotas do not stimulate growth.
The meeting is being held at the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort on the Coral Coast.
The high level meeting is being held to deliberate on the future of ACP sugar producers after the quota system ends in September 2017.
Ministers from sugar producing nations in the ACP group were assured by Mr Cornaro of the importance of their countries’ contribution to the EU sugar market.
Sixty per cent of sugar currently imported by the EU is from ACP states.
“I know that this matter was and remains very close to the ACP constituency. But I am also convinced that this process will be a win-win for European and ACP sugar producers as quotas stifle, rather than stimulate growth and job creation, including in rural areas.
“There are still a lot of misconceptions about today’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), especially on the dumping of agricultural products. Over the past years, CAP was reformed deeply to minimise its impact on world markets, especially developing countries.
“On the bi-lateral front, let me stress that the recent CAP reform did not include any changes to the existing trade regime.”
He said in 2012, the EU continued to be the top importer of products from developing countries, with 72 per cent of imports from developing nations as opposed to 43 per cent for Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Japan combined.