EU Sugar Reform and Preference Receiving Countries

The Common Agricultural Policy of the EU, established for self-sufficiency after Second World War in Europe turned out to become the “naughty children” of the EU by the end of 1980s mainly due to its distortive effects on global trade. Internal and external pressures on EU for reforming the CAP in order to make it less trade-distortive and less costly for the EU taxpayers have led to series of CAP reforms in many products. Sugar, the "black sheep" of the CAP, has stayed out of this trend until 2005. When the long-awaited sugar reform was realized in 2005 however, it implied strong "side effects" on ACP Sugar Protocol countries and LDCs that have preferential access to the EU sugar markets. The aim of this book is thus to look at the other side of the coin, to analyze the adverse effects of reform from the perspective of preference- receiving countries and to question the adequacy of the EU Action Plan for Transitional Assistance. Therefore, the analysis is expected to be useful for anyone interested in the evolution of the CAP, the nature of EU sugar reform and external repercussions with international developmental focus.