Madam, - We are writing to express our heartfelt concern about the future of some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people and the environment they live in, both of which depend heavily on earnings from sugar exports to the European Union.
In the year that many global leaders have committed themselves to ending global poverty, and when hope lies in the WTO ministerial in Hong Kong producing an agreement that will bring genuine benefits to developing countries, we are confounded that the EU is not taking adequate measures to help sugar exporting countries in Africa and the Caribbean to adjust to the changed economic environment that the reform of the EU sugar regime will bring.
Practical action now on sugar reform would be the best way that the EU could show its commitment to a successful sustainable development round within the WTO.
Mozambique, Zambia and several other of the world's least developed countries have long-term potential for sustainable and internationally competitive sugar industries based on the highest social and environmental standards. But they will only realise that potential if the EU helps. Often a job in the sugar industry in these countries can literally change lives.
In Sofala province in central Mozambique, investment in the local sugar industry has led to more jobs, allowing many poor people to work their own way out of poverty. Sugar has provided a stable income for women so that they can afford to send their children to school and pay for better healthcare.
Thousands of jobs are threatened in vulnerable sugar exporting countries such as Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad. While these countries are not among the poorest, huge numbers of people there depend heavily on the sugar crop to make a living. They have few alternatives if growing sugar is unprofitable. This situation could lead to more people living in poverty and seeking other, possibly more environmentally damaging, ways to make a living.
The EU will provide a generous package of measures to support European farmers and industry in their adjustment following the reforms. European agriculture ministers have a responsibility to provide sufficient time and support to enable some of the world's poorest and vulnerable countries to adjust to the sugar reforms as well. Civil society, the ACP and LDCs have all been speaking out about the potential harm of these reforms for many months now.
We urge the EU Agriculture ministers to do all they can today to address our concerns. - Yours, etc,
MARY ROBINSON,
Honorary President of Oxfam International,
President, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalisation Initiative;
GLENYS KINNOCK MEP,
Co-president of the EU-ACP Joint Parliamentary Assembly;
SHARON HAY WEBSTER,
Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly,
Member of Parliament, Jamaica;
ENRIQUE BARÓN CRESPO,
Chairman of European Parliament Committee on International Trade;
DERICK HEAVEN,
Executive Chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority, Jamaica;
PAUL CHITNIS,
President of CIDSE;
Mrs MARIA MANUELA LUCAS,
Ambassador of the Republic of Mozambique,
c/o Oxfam Ireland,
Dublin 2.