CARICOM yesterday, slammed a minor concession by the Europeans of a three per cent reduction in the price cut to be imposed on future sugar exports to the European Union as “unconscionable”, and decried it as an insult.

But in a meeting with president of the EU bloc, British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Malta, Caricom heads were a lot more controlled, using diplomatic speak to convey “disappointment” at the decision.

The EU had originally announced a 39 per cent price cut on sugar from its trading partners in the African Caribbean Pacific grouping, but after mounted appeals, last week, announced a revision of 36 per cent.

Caricom sugar spokesman Clement Rohee was livid.

“The decision of the EU to proceed with such a hefty price cut is outrageous and unconscionable, and as though to add insult to injury, EU beet sugar producers will now receive compensation covering 64.2 per cent – inclusive of an additional euro 2.2 billion – of the loss incurred by the price cut,” said Rohee in a statement issued from the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM)office in Christ Church, Barbados.

“In contrast, a meagre euro 40 million has been offered to ACP sugar producers as compensation,” said Rohee, who is also Guyana’s foreign trade minister.

The EU decision will also extend the transition period from two to four years for sugar producers in the ACP.

The CRNM statement has hinted that the issue had implications for hoped for consensus at the Hong Kong meeting in December when foreign ministers gather to develop a ‘road map for trade’ at the level of the World Trade Organisation.

“While the EU has said the decision would strengthen its position at the forthcoming Sixth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong, it has weakened the EU’s standing amongst the world’s smallest and most vulnerable countries,” said the CRNM.

“This latest action by the EU in response to pressures of liberalisation under the WTO has forced the Caribbean to question whether rich countries and the multilateral trading system have any empathy for their trade and development concerns. At a time when a Development Round is being negotiated under the WTO, the decision is a bitter blow, in that the interests of the small and vulnerable are not being taken into account.”

A statement from Prime Minister PJ Patterson’s office yesterday said Caricom heads, meeting with Blair in the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta, impressed on him the consequences of drastic price cuts on their economies, and the failure, despite “several assurances at various levels in the EU that these concerns would be addressed, the EU had failed to do so.”

The heads also noted their dissatisfaction with the four years over which the preferential pricing mechanism would be phased out, saying the period was too short.

Patterson who has responsibility for external negotiations within Caricom, again pointed out that the sugar protocol was a legally binding relationship of indefinite duration and was based on the premise that the countries of the region would be treated no less fairly than beet sugar producers in Europe.

But there was no word in the Jamaica House release on what signals Blair gave to the Caricom premiers.