Associated Press

Brussels, July 18:

Thousands of sugar producers protested today against proposed European Union reforms that would cut guaranteed prices by up to 39 per cent. The protest began as EU agriculture ministers gathered for a first discussion of plans from the European Commission to overhaul the bloc’s 40-year-old system for protecting sugar growers. The proposal follows a successful World Trade Organisation (WTO) challenge to the EU’s price support system by Australia, Brazil and Thailand. Representatives from poor nations in Africa and the Caribbean joined the demonstration because the reforms would also cut their preferential access to EU markets.

Reform of the EU’s sugar subsidies system has also figured high during world trade talks. German farm minister Renate Kunast said today the Commission’s proposal was going “in the right direction,” adding that the current system “had to be reformed” to meet world trade rules. Farmers’ groups, however, argued that the proposed changes would decimate their livelihoods and destroy the sector in Europe. About 325,000 European farmers grow sugar beet.