HEAVEN
JAMAICA AND other member states of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping are hopeful that a division among European Union (EU) member states on a proposal to abolish preferential price agreement for ACP sugar producers could force EU ministers to postpone the implementation date.
Ambassador Derick Heaven, executive chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority (SIA), said a number of the 25-member states of the EU were opposed to the new proposals to reform the group's sugar policy and this could force ministers to postpone making a ruling in November.
LEADING LOBBY EFFORTS
Ambassador Heaven, who has been leading lobby efforts from the Caribbean against the proposals, explained that while this was not certain, there was optimism that it could happen due to opposition from some members.
Speaking to The Gleaner after his address at a luncheon put on by the Lions Club of Kingston at the Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, yesterday, the SIA executive chairman revealed that the EU's price cut will be five per cent when the first of the proposed cuts takes effect in 2007.
