Coping with the Fallout for Preference-receiving Countries from EU Sugar Reform

Developing countries can produce sugar at much lower cost than it can be produced in the EU, yet reform of the EU sugar policy will result in both winners and losers among them. Reform will benefit competitive sugar exporters currently excluded from the EU market. It will adversely affect those developing countries that currently benefit from preferential import access to the EU's high-priced sugar market, while diminishing the benefits received by those least-developed countries to which duty-free and quota-free access has been promised after July 2009. This article identifies the countries likely to lose and the extent of their potential losses. It examines alternative proposals that have been put forward to assist these countries to adjust to the adverse effects of EU sugar policy reform and contributes to the debate by putting forward a further proposal.