Caribbean Net News: CARICOM sugar stakeholders meeting opens in Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Stakeholders in the sugar industry from throughout the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region are meeting to consider developments since the reform of the European Union Sugar Regime.

The Fourth Meeting of CARICOM stakeholders on sugar is being convened at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana.

CARICOM Secretariat said that stakeholders will also consider the state of play regarding the implementation of the 1,244 billion euro support package to be made available by the European Union to cushion the impact of the drastic price cuts for ACP/Caribbean sugar occasioned by the reform.

Other matters before the stakeholders at the two-day meeting include developments relating to the decision of the CARICOM Heads of Government on the retention within CARICOM of Sugar Protocol shortfalls by CARICOM countries; the status of preparation of a CARICOM Sugarcane Policy and most important, the possible treatment of Sugar within the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) currently being negotiated between the Caribbean and the European Union. The EPA is scheduled to enter into force on 1 January 2008.

Guyana�s Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation and CARICOM Ministerial Spokesperson for Sugar, Dr Henry Jeffrey, will chair the two-day meeting.

CARICOM Stakeholders on Sugar include Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago, and the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC).

On January 13, CARICOM Stakeholders will be joined by the Dominican Republic for further reflections on sugar within the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement, the CARICOM Secretariat said.

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