| The international sugar industry is likely to come under
renewed pressure for liberalization from the World Trade Organization,
David King, secretary general of the World Association of Beet and Cane
Growers, said Monday.
Speaking at the 7th World Sugar Farmers' Conference in Durban, South
Africa, King said sugar is being targeted because tariff protection is
higher than on many other globally-traded products.
King said a new lobby group, the Global Sugar Alliance for Sugar Trade
Reform and Liberalization, is also putting pressure on the industry.
The alliance comprises sugar producers from 15 countries pushing for
changes to sugar-trading practices in the U.S., the European Union and
Japan.
"There will inevitably be winners and losers if the current status
quo in the international sugar industry is altered," King said.
Among the winners would be countries that export the bulk of their
sugar at prevailing world sugar prices.
These include Brazil, the world's biggest producer, South Africa,
Columbia, Guatemala, Thailand and Australia.
Losers would be countries heavily dependent on preferential prices
through trade treaties such as the Cotonou Convention, previously known as
the Lome Convention.
They include Mauritius, Swaziland, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana,
Jamaica and the Philippines.
King said regional trade agreements will also have an impact on
international sugar trade.
He said U.S. sugar imports from Mexico will rise sharply in 2001 and
2002 as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In the E.U., sugar imports are likely to rise from former Eastern
European countries such as Poland.
He said the international sugar industry, worth around 38 billion
dollars a year, must take urgent steps to shape its future to meet
challenges from changing world and regional trading patterns. |