Background Documents

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On this page you will find some useful background documents, including media backgrounders, resolutions, presentations and other resources.

Joint ACP and LDC Sugar Groups Platform
In a joint platform to be presented to EU Agriculture Ministers and the European Commission, the ACP and LDC groups will reiterate their contention that the reform is too deep, too fast and too soon. The platform will stress the need for less drastic price cuts spread over a period of 8 years starting in 2008, as reflected in the recent opinion of the European Parliament Development Committee.

See full document here.

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Statement on the European Commission Proposals for Reform of the EU Sugar Regime
The Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at their Twenty-Sixth Session in Saint Lucia on 3-6 July, 2005, considered the recent proposals by the European Commission for reform of the EU Sugar Regime and protest in the strongest terms the severe and dislocating loss of benefits from the Sugar Protocol which would result, if the Commission's proposals published on 22 June, 2005, are implemented.

See full document here.

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Backgrounder: The ACP Countries and the Reform of the EU Sugar Regime
ACP countries have traditionally played an integral role in the EU sugar regime, supplying fixed quantities of sugar at preferential rates to the EU market under the terms of the ACP-EU Sugar Protocol. The provisions of the Commission's reform proposal would spell disaster for ACP sugar supplying states and inevitably lead to the destruction of centuries old traditions of sugar production with devastating socio-economic consequences.

See full document here.

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Resolution of the 81^st Session of the ACP Council of Ministers - 21-22 June 2005 (Brussels, Belgium)

See full document here.
(Version française)

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UK Presidency of the Council Priorities: Sugar Reform
The United Kingdom assumes the Presidency of the Council on 1 July 2005 and has included sugar reform in the top priority areas for its presidency. "Integral to reform are good, timely, transitional arrangements, which are acceptable to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and which effectively help them adjust to the reform."

See full document here.

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Presentation: EU Sugar Regime Reform: The ACP Perspective
Dr. Dr. Riyad Insanally, Senior Trade Adviser (Sugar), Guyana High Commission, London
Conference on Trade, Agriculture and IP: Issues in the Lead-up to Hong Kong
Helsinki, Finland, April 19, 2005

See full presentation here.

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Meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers, Ministers from ACP and LDC countries and Members of the European Commission
An ACP/LDC ministerial declaration led by Minister Nandcoomar Bodha (ACP Ministerial Spokesman) and Minister Gelal Yousiff Eldegeir (LDC Ministerial Spokesman) met with EU-25 Agriculture Ministers and Commissioners Marian Fisher-Boel, Peter Mandelson and Louis Michel in the margins of the EU Agriculture Council.

See statements made by the ACP and LDC representativesmay here.

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ACP Madrid Declaration
On 21 January 2005, a delegation of ACP and LDC ministers met with the Minister of Agriculture of Spain and senior officials of the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture in Madrid. At the end of the meeting, the ministers adopted the Madrid Declaration on the reform of the EU sugar regime.

See full document here.

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Statement by ACP Sugar supplying States in response to the European Commission’s Communication on the reform of the EU Sugar Regime

From 4-6 October 2004, representatives of ACP and LDC sugar industries and governments met in Brussels to consider their response the the proposals of the European Commission of 14th July 2004 to reform the EU sugar regime.

See full statement here.