THE African Caribbean and Pacific group of nations will give a co-ordinated response to the European Union's recent decision to roll back the price it pays for preferential sugar exported by the regions, at a special meeting in Brussels next month.

Yesterday, Karl James, chairman of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean could not give details of the recommendations to be taken to Brussels, but said they would be finalised at next month's meeting of Caribbean sugar producers in Guyana, which take place only days before the Brussels meeting.

"I can't say what sort of submissions we will make at Brussels but we will be at (the Guyana) meeting to give the final instructions for what we are going to say in Brussels," he told the Observer after a special meeting of the All Island Jamaica Cane Farmers' Association (AIJCFA's) committee of management at the Courtleigh Hotel.

Players in the local sugar industry are also expected to put forward their positions for examination at the Guyana meeting scheduled for September 15 - 16 with hopes of having them included in the recommendations that go to Brussels.

Yesterday, chairman of AIJCFA, Alan Rickards, said local proposals would focus on the announced reduction in sugar price and the period over which the reduction should take place.

Jamaica, like the other members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group that export sugar to Europe have been concerned over the EU's plan that was unveiled June in Brussels to reorganise the preferential arrangement under which the ACP nations sell sugar to Europe.

The EU's proposal of a three-year timetable for a phased 37 per cent reduction in the price it pays for sugar from the ACP nations, drew an outcry from the affected nations with Jamaica's minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, KD Knight, describing the price cut as drastic and the implementation period as too short.

"What we are looking at is the minimum, if any reduction in the price (of sugar) and an adequate period in which we can restructure," Rickards told the Observer.

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