Written question asked by Adam Holloway (Conservative) on Monday, 5 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 7 December 2005. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Wednesday, 14 December 2005 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Sugar Subsidies

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the effect of the recent reductions of sugar subsidies by the EU on (a) encouraging trade in developing countries and (b) the overproduction and dumping of sugar.

Answer: The existing EU sugar regime results in a structural surplus of around 5 million tonnes of sugar a year, much of which is disposed of on world markets with the aid of export subsidies. This depresses world prices as well as displacing other potential suppliers. It also requires the EU to limit access to its own market in order to protect its internal price structure.Under the reformed arrangements agreed in November to take effect from July 2006, EU prices will be progressively reduced and the industry restructured to achieve a new balance of supply and demand consistent with the granting of full duty free access to all Least Developed Countries from 2009 (in addition to existing preferential access for African Caribbean and Pacific countries) and limiting exports to the new lower level of 1.27 million tonnes resulting from the recent WTO Panel ruling.The impact of these changes is considered in detail in the Partial Regulatory Impact Assessment of options for reform of the EU Sugar Regime published by DEFRA in June 2005.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 35604; 440 c2016W
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Developing countries Trade Sugar Subsidies Common sugar regime Surpluses
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk