Every year Belize's produces over a hundred thousand tons of sugar but less than half of that is sold for premium preferential prices on the European market. Belize gets into that market as part of the ACP group of nations - African, Caribbean and Pacific. The rest of the sugar that Belize produces is basically dumped unto the world market where sugar fetches rock bottom prices. But now Belize will get to sell about 10 thousand more tons into the European market. It's being called a breakthrough and it was achieved last week after intense negotiations at a special meeting of ACP Ministers in Belgium.
The additional quota space came up when St. Kitts announce that it was getting out of sugar production. That led to a high level fight between super-sized African nations on one side and Belize and Guyana on the other, with everyone scrambling for the quota. Foreign Trade Minister Eamon Courtenay led the delegation to Brussels and he told us how Belize secured its share.
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Trade
"In this particular case Ministers of Trade took a decision that we would fight for the Caribbean getting all of the fifteen thousand five hundred and odd tons."
Jules Vasquez,
On the basis that St. Kitt's is a Caribbean country?
Eamon Courtenay,
"On the basis that St. Kitt's is a Caribbean country, also on the basis that we are moving to a single market and economy. And therefore whereas we were first seven different countries, as members of the sugar protocol, we are now a single market and economy, and if one part of our economy cannot produce, you have to look at it wholistically and say if the Caribbean still produce and in this case both Belize and Guyana are in excess of the quota allocations that we have.
There was a strenuous fight last week in Brussels, a rather heated meeting which we had to adjourn a couple of times to try to come up with a solution. But at the end we were able to hold our ground. A number of countries, Malawi for example came forward and supported the Caribbean which immediately broke the bloc in the African and Pacific countries.
Minister Henry Jeffrey from Guyana and myself were the two Ministers there fighting on behalf of the Caribbean and we had two standouts, Zambia and Swaziland. We approached them and we appealed to them and made our arguments to them and eventually they got instructions from their capitals that they could concede.
It means a lot for Belize. As you know we are currently expanding our sugar production in Belize. BSI is moving now to BELCOGEN which is going into energy production, the bagasse for energy production, and that will need more access to the European market to compensate us as prices fall. Our target is really 125,000 tons. We are now just over fifty with this final allocation and so we have a far way to go.
We have every reason to believe that Belize will be able to get the additional quota that we need. And again we make that argument on the basis that the other countries in the Caribbean that have an allocation for sugar are going out of sugar and cannot produce sugar.
Trinidad and Tobago for example is going to go out of sugar with I believe about twenty odd thousand tons allocated to them. We are saying that should come to Belize and Guyana because we are producing excess. If we get these, we'll be secured, we'll have a fixed price, we'll have a secure market, we'll have secured arrangements and sugar should be able to survive in the longer run. So that's our fight."
Jules Vasquez,
When you break it down, what does it mean for the cane farmer and when will it take effect?
Eamon Courtenay,
"This will take effect this year first of all so cane farmers will get the benefit of this now and secondly, what it means for them is that they can continue to go to the bank to finance themselves because they no longer have to worry that their cane will be sold on the world market which is a dump market. In the European Union we have a guaranteed a access and guaranteed price and so we will be able to say to them that now even up to our hope is 125,000 tons and therefore for all the sugar we produce, we'll have a guaranteed market and a guaranteed price. We are halfway there now and so the fight continues."
Prior to Belgium, Foreign Minister Courtenay met with European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in Germany to discuss economic partnership agreements where the EU is trying to have ACP countries reduce trade barriers.
