Bitter Sugar for Africa

By Farah Khan

Oxfam poured buckets and buckets of sugar onto a map of Africa yesterday to illustrate its point that Europe is dumping the commodity on the continent to the detriment of African farmers.

The advocacy group also gave out 9, 000 sachets of sugar with unusual labels. The sugar read: "Made in Europe, dumped in Africa." It also carries a warning which reads: "Warning: Devastating to African farmers," and "Less sweet than it tastes."

The sugar in the sachets is British and comes to market at a guaranteed price of Euro 632 a ton, when the world market price is just Euro 184.

Stung by the allegations, European Commission spokesman Michael Curtis said the E.U. realised its subsidies were a problem and that it was committed to sorting these out. "We recognise we have an issue on subsidies and are taking steps to address these."

He said the Everything But Arms initiative would eventually "fully liberalise" trade with the least developed countries. Curtis said this year the initiative had seen Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Sudan export duty-free sugar to the E.U.

Oxfam argues that the amounts exported from Africa are negligible in development terms. "Europe is the largest importer of sugar in the world. We import more than the United States, Canada and Japan combined."

Europe imports between 860 and 900-million tons annually, said Curtis.

The E.U.'s Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Poul Nielson said the Union was committed to reducing trade-distorting farm subsidies, in line with decisions taken at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Doha, Qatar last year, where a new global trade round was launched.

"Negotiations to fulfil this commitment and to establish how big the cuts should be have to be completed in time for new commitments to be tabled before the 5th WTO ministerial in September 2003. Doha is the foundation stone for action on subsidies."

Activists argue that Europe has been moving too slowly. Oxfam's Antonio Hill says reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been promised since 1995. He also adds that European imports from African countries are not significant enough to ensure a development dividend for countries like Mozambique.

The charity's "Sugar Scam" report blasts European subsidies for undercutting the export potential of several producer countries in southern Africa and for keeping world prices artificially low.

South Africa loses 150 million U.S. dollars a year in export opportunities, while it is estimated that Mozambique loses 106 million dollars. The sugar industry is the largest employer in Mozambique and in Swaziland.

Oxfam's hopes its campaign will force the E.U. to institute an immediate 25 percent cut in sugar quotas. But Nielson says subsidy reduction must be done carefully.

"Reforming agricultural policy has to be done progressively, as current WTO rules recognise. Big leaps forward may lead to major reverses.

"The E.U. has followed a consistent policy of reforms since 1992, leading most recently to last month's commission's proposal for a mid-term review of the CAP," he said.