The reforms are long overdue. But at last the European Union is proposing to cut its sugar subsidies, which the World Trade Organization ruled illegal in May.
The EU pays its producers three times the going price for sugar and exports the resulting surpluses very cheaply. That has kept the global market price low and makes it hard for non-subsidised farmers to compete.
Agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel proposes cutting the EU鈥檚 set price by 39 per cent by 2008. This, plus compensation, is intended to persuade the least efficient beet farmers in countries such as Greece and Finland to switch to other crops, ending surpluses. Then, in 2009, the EU would open its borders to imports. Sugar exporters such as Brazil could benefit from an EU market price still above world levels, and also by exporting more to the EU鈥檚 former customers. The proposal has yet to be approved by the EU鈥檚 25 farm ministers.
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The price cut could be disastrous for former colonies, especially in the Caribbean, which export to Europe at the inflated EU price. Though the proposal offers 鈧�40 million to help them adjust, this is only a fraction of the 鈧�1.5 billion earmarked for European farmers.
Adam Harrison of the conservation group WWF-UK also complains that the proposal misses an opportunity to fight poverty. By offering aid or access to Europe鈥檚 market it could have helped countries such as Zambia and Mozambique move into sustainable sugar production, he says.