Brussels, 04/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a letter addressed to the acting president of the General Affairs and External Relations Council, the Finnish foreign affairs minister, Erkki Tuomioja, on 2 October, the International Confederation of European Beet Growers (CIBE) and the Comité européen des fabricants de sucre (CEFS) called on Member States to review the agreement concluded last March on implementation (as from January 2007) of a ceiling of 180,000 tonnes a year on Croatia's sugar exports to the EU (EUROPE 9153). The Council is preparing to adopt this agreement as it stands.
Organisations defending the interests of European beet growers consider that the recent provisions on the classification of sugar products in the tariff lists effectively allow Croatia to export “as much sugar as it likes” to the EU if at least 0.2% of cocoa powder is added to the sugar. These new provisions were adopted on 10 February 2006 by the Commission and published the day after in the Official Journal. The CIBE and CEFS explain that products containing sugar and cocoa mixtures grew by 1560 tonnes in 2003 to 67,500 tonnes in 2005 and reached 66,000 t during the first few months of the year. The two bodies are calling on the Council to declare that this agreement is “not in the spirit of the negotiating brief given to the Commission and must therefore be improved”. (lc)