The EU Sugar Protocol

For the last half century, the European sugar regime has remained largely unscathed by domestic Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms and this was no less the case when EU trade ministers met on 26 June 2003. However, in light of recent developments, the sugar regime currently in place, which will expire in 2006, faces pressures to reform from various fronts, including a WTO dispute (which the EU lost,. although the panel report has been appealed), WTO negotiations on agriculture in the context of the Doha Development Round as well as the recent enlargement of the EU in Eastern Europe. This will almost certainly mean that sugar, and the Sugar Protocol, will be subject to far-reaching reforms