AMBASSADOR Gail Mathurin, Jamaica’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom, is being redeployed to Brussels in mid-summer, well- placed sources say, a move that would signal deeper concentration on trade negotiations as new sugar rules take effect and the WTO negotiating round approaches deadline.

Foreign affairs and foreign trade minister Senator Anthony Hylton told the Sunday Observer that, as foreign minister, he could not comment either way on Mathurin’s move, saying there were “certain sensitivities” involved.

“I can’t comment,” said Hylton, who took up his appointment in April. “I will neither confirm nor deny it.”

But London sources say Mathurin will head to Brussels, home of the European Union, in August.

It’s unclear whether she will replace or join ambassador to the EU and noted expert on Caricom, Evadne Coye.

Mathurin, whose quiet expertise on international trade has broad-based respect, was named UK ambassador in April 2005 under the PJ Patterson administration, replacing Maxine Roberts who completed her two-year tour in December 2004.

As ambassador to the UK, Mathurin also has diplomatic responsibilities for Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Spain and Portugal.

She has worked with Hylton before; this being the minister’s second tour in the foreign ministry.

Word of Mathurin’s likely move to the home of the EU comes amidst jitters in Geneva that the World Trade Organisation may not complete the Doha development round by its mid-2007 deadline, before United States president George W Bush loses his fast-track powers that would allow him to sign negotiated trade deals into law, without congressional amendment.

At the same time, Jamaica and Caricom are trying to sway the EU into bigger monetary payouts to finance value-added sugar programmes to replace lost market share in Europe anticipated when the new sugar trading regime goes into effect. The EU begins phasing in a 36 per cent cut in sugar price in July.

The bloc, in December, proposed offering US$223 million a year to Caribbean producers, from 2007 until 2013, but some member states have counter-proposed that the fund start at US$154 million in 2007 and peak at US$202 million in 2013.

The final offer will depend on the EU’s 2007-2013 budget.

Mathurin’s skills also fall squarely into what former WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi had been pushing for from members – the assigning of experts in ‘commercial diplomacy’ to Geneva to fire up the pace of world trade negotiations, as it became clear that the pre-agreements needed for a successful Hong Kong round in December 2005 were behind schedule and would likely derail progress, as eventually happened.

Prior to her diplomatic assignment in London, Mathurin, a career foreign service officer, was steeped in trade negotiations as undersecretary for trade in the foreign ministry and as ambassador for external negotiations.

Much of her popularity flowed from her knack for breaking down highly complex trade jargon for digestion and action by businesses and lawmakers.

Brussels would be familiar stomping grounds for Mathurin, having once served the Jamaican embassy there as first secretary for the mission to the European Union.

Hylton was appointed foreign minister at the end of March, replacing KD Knight who resigned when Portia Simpson Miller became head of government.

Mathurin’s replacement in London is expected to be a former government minister.