Jan, 2005: Robert Sturdy expresses concern
over WTO sugar reforms
Robert Sturdy speaking in the agriculture committee
today in his capacity as co-chair of the World Trade Organisation
questioned the Commission and expressed his concerns over their
proposals for sugar reform.
The major concern, he stated, was the cutting
of the guaranteed price that the farmers receive by a minimum of
a third which Mr Sturdy said was too much and would harm industry
across East Anglia.
He went on to address the problems of quota.
Mr Sturdy made it clear that quotas should be transferable across
member states as the EU is a single market, and this would greatly
benefit the most efficient countries such as the UK. Mr Sturdy
also highlighted the opaqueness of the current proposals on quota
ownership, saying that it must be clearly stated that the ownership
belongs to the farmer not the processor, to ensure that compensation
goes to farmers, where it is needed, rather than to processors.
Mr Sturdy then went on to ask the Commission
what they intended to do on the issue of traceability. He made
the point that all sugar looks the same and there have been problems,
likely to increase with the liberalisation of the market, of sugar
being brought into the EU and exported out. Last year there was
controversy when it occurred that the Balkan states had been doing
this under their preferential access agreements. Mr Sturdy stated
that he feared that this would happen with Brazilian exports, devastating
their wildlife and the European sugar industry.
Mr Sturdy took the opportunity to express the
environmental importance of the crop as part of biodiversity in
nature, and stressed that unlike in Brazil where the sugar beet
is grown in horizon fashion - e.g. stretching from either side
of the horizon, and it decimates everything in its path, there
are great benefits to the UK and EU from the growing of the crop.
He stated: "The crop provides
nesting sites for skylarks, cover for animals like hares, and ensures
that geese feed on the tops in winters, and that plovers gets a
square meal from the grubs in soil. As there is very low use of
pesticides on the crop it provides a great contribution to the
biodiversity of an area".
Mr Sturdy made it plain that whilst he thought that a managed market
was needed, the current commission proposals were not satisfactory,
due to the effects they would have on both the EU and the African,
Carribean, and Pacific and the Least Developed Countries, who currently
benefit heavily from the regime.
