Sugar log

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sugar Protocol was a bilateral trade agreement between the EU and part of the ACP countries that emerged from the CSA / Commonwealth Sugar Agreement and was part of the Lomé Convention . It allowed and obliged 21 of the ACP countries to supply sugar to the European Union at EU prices and thus served at the same time to promote sugar cultivation in the ACP countries and to secure supplies for European sugar processors.

Legal bases

The Sugar Protocol essentially consisted of two separate agreements:

  • The EU-ACP Sugar Protocol of 1975, an annex to the Cotonou Agreement , which guaranteed the duty-free import of 1.3 million tons of raw sugar from the ACP countries (plus India) at the EU internal market price.
  • The preference sugar scheme of 1995, which guarantees 85% of the purchase price of the ACP sugar agreement for a further 300,000 tonnes of sugar. While the ACP Sugar Protocol had an unlimited duration, this part was limited to six years and expired on June 30, 2001.

scope

In 2006, the annual duty-free import quota under the Sugar Protocol was 1.3 million tonnes.

Resale on the world market

The EU exported some of the sugar it imported from former colonies at high prices, heavily subsidized on the world market. The Sugar Protocol meant about 800 million euros in additional costs for the EU every year.

Abolition of the Sugar Protocol

WTO decision

The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in 2003 that the EU's sugar subsidies violated WTO rules after Brazil , Thailand and Australia complained against it.

Reduction of sugar subsidies in the EU

The EU decided to gradually reduce sugar prices by a total of 36% from mid-2006 to July 2009. A ton of raw sugar would have cost only 303 euros instead of 524 euros.

The drop in sugar prices would have particularly affected Mauritius , which with 507,000 tonnes annually supplies around 40% of the EU's sugar imports. Only Zimbabwe , Malawi , and Mozambique were still competitive at the reduced price.

In fact, only during the global economic crisis (around October 2009 to January 2011) was the sugar price just under 500 euros per ton. From then on it increased significantly; at the end of 2012 it was 728 euros per ton - an increase of almost 50% in just under two years (for more information and sources, see the “Sugar” article here ).

End of the sugar protocol

The sugar protocol ended in October 2009. In a transitional phase, the Sugar Protocol states could only export a maximum amount of sugar to the EU until 2012 at a minimum price. Sugar from the ACP countries has had free market access in the EU since 2015, but a minimum price is no longer guaranteed. To support the adaptation of agriculture in the ACP countries, the EU made a total of 1.25 billion euros available between 2006 and 2013 in the form of a support fund.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Background on the EU proposal to denounce the Sugar Protocol and market access for ACP sugar under EPAs - September 14, 2007
  2. Busse, Jerosch, Reform of the EU Sugar Market, Intereconomics March / April 2006 ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.intereconomics.eu
  3. [1]
  4. Background on the EU proposal to denounce the Sugar Protocol and market access for ACP sugar under EPAs - September 14, 2007
  5. ^ Delegation of the European Union to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean - Sugar protocol
  6. ^ Delegation of the European Union to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean - Sugar protocol