An Integrated Sugar Market for CARICOM
A significant decision was taken at a recent regional meeting which is sweet news for sugar producers in Belize, A.S.R./B.S.I. and Santander. After years of lobbying, the locally produced sugar will be able to enter markets in the Caribbean through an Integrated Sugar Market programmed. Here is News Five’s Isani Cayetano.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Belize continues to make significant inroads in getting locally produced sugar into the CARICOM market. High on the agenda at the forty-ninth regular meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), held in Georgetown, Guyana last month was the establishment of an Integrated Sugar Market. This would seek to assess the interests of both regional producers and manufacturers. William Neal is the communications officer for the Sugar Association of the Caribbean.
William Neal
William Neal, Communications Officer, B.S.I.
“After three years of advocating across the region with both producer states of sugar and non-producing member states we were able to get a significant decision made by COTED. What that means is that we had some concerns about brown sugar coming into the region from extra regional sources and that we were worried that they were not paying the CET [Common External Tariff]. COTED reaffirmed that brown sugar coming into the region needs to, with immediate effect, pay the CET which is good for us because there’s been a significant erosion of that market.”
The protection of the common external tariff shall remain for the quantities of sugar available within the region, in accordance with the provisions of the revised treaty. Likewise, a monitoring mechanism will be implemented for all sugars to determine the match and availability, as well as demand requirements to ensure support to the regional production of sugar.
William Neal
“We need to get an idea of exactly how much sugar is being used in the manufacturing sector, in the retailing sector, in every aspect of life in the Caribbean. So that was number two, and then the third one is that once the members states that are sugar producers can produce the quantity and the quality of sugar needed by the region then the CET will go into effect. Of course this is significant because even though that is what the treaty says, it means that there will not be a moving of the goal post, so to speak.”
This means that member states must comply with their existing obligations by applying the common external tariff to all brown sugar enter the CARICOM single market.
William Neal
“What it means actually, too, is that there is no change in what happens now, but what it does is create the right environment for investment in the region.”
That decision allows for the security required by the private sector to invest further in the industry and to upgrade production facilities, as well as produce higher qualities of sugar and to expand output.
William Neal
“I think it’s significant because with the changes in the EU regime dating back to 2017. It is difficult for CARICOM produced sugar to find a home and, of course, in most other regions you have the sugar that is produced locally, meaning the sugar that is produced in that area, that you satisfy the local demands first and then you export what is left. That means that you have a safe market. We have never had that in CARICOM and it has been for a number of historical reasons, obviously because we sold most of our sugar to the EU for such lucrative prices we never even looked at our own market.”
Isani Cayetano
“This of course is from the regional perspective, but what does this now means for A.S.R./B.S.I. in terms of having its sugar produced in Belize being able to find that proverbial home, as you said?”
William Neal
“Well it’s not only for just B.S.I., it also means that Santander and any other producer in the region can compete with another regional producer instead of an extra regional producer or with dumped sugar from outside the region.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
