Headlines:
| Cane farmers satisfied with sugar deals under EPA |
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| Tuesday, 18 December 2007 | |
The island's cane farmers say they are relieved by the
deals meted out on sugar under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).The Chairman of the All Island Jamaican Cane Farmers Association, Alan Rickards says farmers are satisfied. He cited the quotas for exports of sugar from the region to Europe as one example. "We have a basis on which we can go forward to get some more sugar quotas, not what we requested but its more and there is a declaration that will allow for regional re-allocation of shortfalls, that is if any country in the region cannot fulfill its quota it will be reassigned within the region which is something we dearly wanted," said Mr. Rickards. The price Europe pays for Caribbean sugar and the terms of market access between Europe and the region were among the chief concerns of regional negotiators. Word that an EPA had been hammered out between the Caribbean and the European Commission came from Barbados on the weekend. There, regional negotiators had been rushing to finalise the EPA before the December 31 expiration of the trade pact it replaces. The EPA will replace the Cotonou agreement which has been deemed non-complaint with the free trade rules of the World Trade Organization. Caribbean states and the European Commission had been negotiating the EPA for more than three years. |