quarta-feira, abril 14, 2004
UE: Subsídios Agricolas
No EU Observer.
As the battle rages over reform of the EU's agriculture regime, a report has claimed that Europe's six biggest sugar producers received 819 million euro in subsidies in 2003.
The report, to be published by Oxfam International today (14 April), claims that six of the European Union's biggest sugar processors hold export subsidy receipts of 819 million euro.
The sum is similar to the estimated 800 million the EU and its members pledged for Iraqi reconstruction from November 2003 until the end of this year at a donor's conference in Madrid last year.
Oxfam has long campaigned for the EU to cut its export subsidies, which they say create an uneven playing field for producers from poorer countries.
According to the organisation, for every one euro worth of sugar exports the EU is spending ?3.30 in such subsidies.
This, they say, allows European producers to undercut producers in poorer countries who receive little or no such payments.
"The EU needs to display a sense of international responsibility commensurate with its market power", the report says.
Each year the EU exports around 5.3 million tonnes of sugar, a third of its total harvest and roughly equivalent to the total production of the world's seventh largest producer, Australia.
Australia and Brazil (the world's largest producer) last year joined forces with Thailand to complain about the EU's sugar subsides at the World Trade Organisation.
The WTO's initial ruling is expected this summer.
posted by Miguel Noronha 10:28 da manhã
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