EU Commission Overhauls Sugar Trade Rules

Link: news - EU Commission Announces Major Overhaul Of Sugar Trade Rules.

The European Commission proposal will cut guaranteed prices to European producers by 39 percent following a successful challenge to the subsidy system at the World Trade Organization by Australia, Brazil and Thailand. The WTO ruled in April that the EU's system of subsidies to guarantee high prices for European sugar producers was illegal. It agreed with Brazil, the world's biggest producer, which argued that the EU system depressed world prices and made it impossible for others to compete. EU sugar prices are more than four times higher than the global market rate and are protected by massive import tariffs ....

Reuters meanwhile reports the world's top three sugar cane exporters, Brazil, Thailand and Australia, welcomed the reform of Europe's heavily subsidized sugar industry, but Caribbean nations said it would cost them millions of dollars in lost revenue. Brazil, with 40 percent of the free world market, is eventually expected to fill much of the vacuum left by the EU in international trade. Thailand, the world's second-ranked exporter, said producers outside the European Union would stand to gain from the overhaul.