By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterTHE FATE of Jamaica's US$75 million sugar industry will hinge heavily on the deliberations of a World Trade Organisation panel regarding a dispute brought by Australia, Brazil and Thailand against the European Commission's sugar regime.
Jamaica and other African, Caribbean and Pacific countries benefit from this regime.
The WTO panel, a non-partisan dispute mechanism, will be made up of representatives from Chile, Japan and the United States, and will likely commence its work in another six to eight weeks.
"It will be a legal proceeding, there are arguments to be made on both sides. Jamaica is working with the other ACP countries to make a written submission to the panel, but at some time, Jamaica will be asked to make a statement at the appropriate panel hearing on its individual case, but in a way mindful of the whole picture," said Wayne McCook, senior director of foreign trade in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
He added that "the process can take anywhere between 23 and 34 weeks before a final report is prepared."
PROVIDED 40,000 JOBS
According to figures from the Sugar Industry Authority, the local sugar industry realised revenues of US$75 million and provided over 40,000 jobs last year.
The ACP states, which are suppliers of sugar under the Sugar Protocol which incorporates long-standing trading arrangements, were repeatedly assured by Australia and Brazil that they would not take steps in their dispute with the European Commission which would directly or indirectly affect the interest of the ACP States concerned. The major bone of contention is that the exports of the EC depress the price of sugar on the world market.
However, stakeholders in the local sugar industry have charged that the aggressive moves by Australia and Brazil - large multi-commodity producers/exporters - are motivated solely by mercantilist considerations.
"We contend that the real villain of low world market price is Brazil, because Brazil has increased its exports to world market from one million tonnes 10 years ago to 13 million tonnes now," Karl James, general manager of Jamaica Cane Products Sales Ltd., said. "Brazil has the land, they can do manipulation with the exchange rate... to keep their cost of production low, they keep dumping more and more sugar on the world market."
He said that "the EU has remained basically steady at five million tonnes over the years. Thailand has increased, so has Australia, and these guys are trying to control the world market by getting rid of the treatment we enjoy, and to get rid of the export subsidy the EU provides to its beet farmers."
