§ Mr. WillsTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the impact on developing countries of each of the options for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy sugar regime set out in the European Commission's working paper Reforming the European Union's sugar policy. [161504]
§ Hilary BennThe UK Government support the European Commission's view that the extension of the current regime beyond 2006 (the status quo' option) is unsustainable given a range of both internal and external pressures. However, the issues are complex in developmental terms as any change to such a highly distorted regime will bring about losers as well as winners. This complexity is amplified by the divergence404W of interests among those developing countries with and those without preferential access to the European Union sugar market. DFID is working closely with other Government Departments to examine the implications for developing countries of the three options for reform set out by the European Commission.