Benefits for the EU and ACP Countries

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"More than simply a long-standing trade relationship with mutual benefits"

In any trade agreement, one would expect there to be mutual benefits. The ACP/EU trade in sugar under the Sugar Protocol and SPS is no exception here, for example, the 250,000 directly sugar related jobs in ACP sugar supplying states and those employed at EU port refineries in the UK, France, Portugal and Finland.

Benefits to the European Union

The Sugar Protocol and SPS enable EU port refineries to be supplied reliably and predictably, and therefore the maintenance of an EU cane sugar refining industry which is a valuable complement to the beet industry. The importance of cane sugar refining to the EU was recognized in Council Regulation (EC) No 1101/95 as follows:

"Whereas refining is an important activity both in the sugar sector in general in the Community, and in particular in refineries for conversion of raw sugar into white sugar; whereas, from a technical point of view, refining produces high-quality products from sugar cane that can meet market requirements; whereas, moreover, these refineries are located in areas of high consumption; whereas the port-related refining industry is accordingly, for the Community, a valuable complement to the beet processing industry, in particular in Finland, mainland Portugal, the United Kingdom and southern and western France;"

However, ACP sugar is more than simply a matter of trade; because the agreements encompass mutual political and economic rights and obligations which extend well beyond the confines of sugar refining, for example, ACP sugar is an integral part of the EU sugar régime; in the jargon, ACP sugar is one of the "pillars" of the régime. The ACP therefore feel that it is "their" régime, just as it belongs to other stakeholders, for example, European beet growers (135,000 directly related jobs), European beet processors (52,000 directly related jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs in beet transport) and European consumers.

Benefits to the ACP countries

Just as the Protocol is important to sugar interests in the European Union, the sugar sector is of great strategic importance to the economies of the ACP states signatory to the Sugar Protocol. Sugar represents a high proportion of total agricultural production and is a primary agricultural export. The EU is a major outlet for ACP sugar production.

In industrialized countries, even those selling sugar to the world market, many social benefits are made available by the state, whereas in ACP countries, housing, health care, education, recreation, and other such benefits are more often than not provided by sugar producers. Moreover, this tends not to be the case in other sugar producing developing countries.

As with EU sugar producing industries, the ACP industries continue to place very considerable emphasis on the need to modernize sugar industries, to make efficient use of all factors of production, to strive for greater environmental protection, and to ensure wider participation and ownership, for example by small cane growers. The socio-economic development and modernization of ACP and EU sugar industries clearly demonstrates the multifunctional role of sugar.