Global Policy Forum

By Larry Elliott

An effort by the European commission to allow in goods from the world's poorest countries is in danger of being killed off by Europe's powerful multinational sugar firms and forces of protectionism across the continent, according to Clare Short, the international development secretary.

Ms Short will intensify a full-scale campaign across Europe this week in an attempt to secure support for the initiative proposed by the EC's trade commissioner, Pascal Lamy, under which tariffs into the EU would be scrapped for the 48 least-developed nations. The proposal has been strongly backed by aid agencies, but the development secretary fears that it is in danger of becoming bogged down after an outcry from the sugar multinationals. The government now fears that the offer may be withdrawn unless the opposition is faced down and the deal agreed by the end of France's presidency of the EU in just over a month's time.

Ms Short said: "The countries who would be helped by duty free access are the poorest of the poor, yet their voices are being drowned out by vested interests." Britain's attempt to press ahead with the initiative has led to clashes in the Commons, where the Conservatives have opposed the plan on the grounds that it will harm sugar producers in the Caribbean, who have traditionally had preferential access to Europe, the biggest and richest market in the world.

While the government is offering help to Caribbean producers to help them adjust to the new regime, it believes the impact would be modest. Ms Short believes the plight of Caribbean sugar producers is being used as a smokescreen by the big sugar companies, which have long benefited from inflated European sugar prices and do not want to see cheaper imports from the least-developed countries disturbing this arrangement.

European sugar beet farmers, who are offered three times the world price for their produce, are also concerned about their ability to compete with the LDCs, and are being backed by the EC's agricultural directorate. According to British and aid agency sources, agricultural officials in Brussels are using delaying tactics to thwart Mr Lamy's proposal, primarily by sitting on impact studies needed for member states to take a final decision on the duty-free plan.

Ms Short said she sympathised with sugar producers in the Caribbean, but said they would have time to adjust to the new regime, because capacity to export in the LDCs was so limited. According to Whitehall data, the average GDP per head in the 48 countries that would benefit was $287 a year in 1998, compared to $4,809 in the Caribbean. "Mozambique, a competitive sugar producing LDC with GDP per head of $204, does not have access to the EU sugar market," Ms Short added.

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