The ACP agreed to be proactive and ensure the full participation of its members to safeguard their interests. With regard to agriculture, Ministers agreed that diverse systems had to be recognised and preserved. They also observed that WTO compatible domestic support measures were not within the financial reach of the ACP Sugar Supplying States. In this regard, non-trade concerns should cover in specific terms the multifunctional role that sugar has in ACP Sugar Supplying States. Rural activity has been preserved and urban migration contained.
Sugar also plays a further role in environmental protection.
Ministers noted the significant contribution to ACP sugar export earnings of the SPS Agreement, and resolved to seek its renewal beyond June 2001. ACP Sugar Supplying States have embarked on major restructuring programmes to allow their industries to fully participate in the long term in the global world economy. Such socio-economic development can only be sustained through predictable and stable levels of export earnings. Any disruption of the flow of such revenue would have dire consequences for the ACP Supplying States which are net food importers, least-developed, landlocked or island states. New multilateral trade rules should not further erode the benefits they currently derive from their exports to their historical markets.