Belize gets Additional EU Sugar Quota
Agreement expression of solidarity
Belmopan - 20 March, 2007 -- A major breakthrough was achieved in Brussels last week when a Special Meeting of Ministers of the African Caribbean and Pacific countries agreed that the shortfall in Sugar Protocol supplies resulting from the cessation of production in St Kitts should be reallocated within the Caribbean region. CARICOM sugar stakeholders have agreed that this reallocation should be shared equally by Belize and Guyana. The result is an increase of some 8 000 tons or nearly 20 % in the permanent quota of Belize to the European market.
Belize is elated by the decision. According to Hon. Eamon Courtenay, “This decision is the culmination of a year long struggle to persuade the ACP countries that having on several previous occasions ceded quota shortfalls to their African colleagues the CARICOM nations had to keep this vital access within the newly established Caribbean Single Market. The final agreement was a welcome expression of solidarity amongst ACP sugar producers and halts a growing transfer from the Caribbean of long standing commodity trading benefits .”
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