Sugar prices could soar 10 percent under a WTO ruling against Euro-pean subsidies that was being cheered by the major producing countries of Australia, Thailand and Brazil yesterday.
The big three producers had accused the EU of breaking trade rules with unfair sugar export subsidies and predicted the EU would have to sharply slash its exports if the preliminary ruling is made final.
"This is a significant win for Australia," Warren Males of Queens-land Sugar Ltd said, echoing similar triumphant remarks from Thailand, the world's second largest sugar exporter and Asia's biggest.
Thailand, which exports around 7 million tonnes of sugar each year worth about US$1.4 billion, "will gain from the ruling", said a senior official at the Thai Sugar Millers Association.
"The world sugar price is expected to rise by at least 10 percent," he said.
Queensland Sugar, Australia's monopoly raw sugar exporter, and the farmer group Canegrowers said the impact on world prices would be significant, but it was too early to tell just how high prices would go.
Canegrowers calculated the ruling would slash EU sugar exports by around two-thirds, to about 1.3 million tonnes a year, or sharply lower than the 4 million tonnes the EU shipped this year.
"A reduction in supply of around three million tonnes will have a market impact, no question about that," said Canegrowers general manager Ian Ballantyne. "We're hugely buoyed. We think it's a major victory for trade."
Australia, the world's third largest sugar exporter which ships 4 million tonnes of raw sugar each year worth A$1 billion (US$700 million), argued along with Thailand and Brazil that the EU subsidies had increased production artificially and depressed world prices.
Oxfam called the decision "a triumph for developing countries and a death knell for unfair EU sugar export subsidies."
The preliminary WTO ruling is confidential and a final ruling should be issued next month after both sides have had time to comment, although final rulings rarely differ from the preliminary ones.
Each side is able to appeal and it could be another year before the decision takes effect.
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
RSS