Already facing withering price cuts for sugar sold on the European market, tonight there may be more bad news for countries of the ACP group, including Belize.
The World Trade Organization dispute settlement body established to review complaints of Australia, Brazil and Thailand against the European Union on preferential sugar quotas and prices has made a decision.
On Friday the 15th of October the WTO released its findings which were against the European Union. In essence the report states that the European Union is importing more sugar from ACP countries than it should. While the EU says this quantity of sugar is not imported as non-preferential, findings show that the imports are being cross subsidized by what's deemed as excessive sugar prices for preferential sugar.
While this is a loss for the ACP countries and the EU there is no mention that out rightly states that the EU cannot import sugar on preferential terms so long as it does so in the allotted quantities. There are indications that the EU and the ACP countries will appeal the rulings.