Everything But Arms (EBA) and the EU-sugar market reform - development gift or Trojan Horse?

Abstract

"The EBA-Initative of 2001 has made three notable exceptions to its commitment for tariff and quota free access of least development countries (LDCs) to the EU-market: Sugar, bananas, and rice, for which longer transitions periods have been imposed. Despite the decelerated opening of the EU market for EBA sugar, it is precisely sugar that presently constitutes the highest preferential value for LCDs, at least in the short and medium term and given the present high EU sugar price of more than 600 Euros per ton under the current Sugar Markt Order (SMO), which is more than triple the world market price. The EU itself projected that the EBA exports would attain 3.3 million tons per year in 2013 at a value of almost 2 billion Euros." (excerpt)