STATE TRADING IN SUGAR

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27705, 8 July 1955, Page 3

STATE TRADING IN SUGAR

BRITAIN TO CHANGE POLICY LONDON MARKETS TO BE RE-ESTABLISHED LONDON, July 6. The British Government today published a bill and an official statement on its plans for ending the system of State trading ii. sugar, and at the same time fulfilling in the free market its commitments under the Commonwealth sugar agreement. The plans will open the way for the re-establishment of the London sugar market.

The purpose of the Commonwealth sugar agreement is to provide Commonwealth sugar exporters with a measure of stability in both market and price, and to encourage and maintain a high level of sugar exports within the Commonwealth.

Under the agreement, which runs until 1962, the British Government is committed to buy annually 1,568,000 tons of Commonwealth sugar at a price negotiated each year. It has also pledged itself to pay a guaranteed price for an authorised acreage of home-grown sugar beet. An official paper issued today disclosed that the cost of carrying out these obligations will be recovered from the proceeds of 'a surcharge on all sugar consumed in Britain so that no new burden will fall on the Exchequer. The surcharge will be levied on all dutiable sugar and molasses entering the British internal market.

The Sugar Bill, also issued today, will set up a small sugar board having the statutory duty of buying at a negotiated price sugar which the Government had contracted to purchase under the Commonwealth sugar agreement and of reselling it in the country of origin at commercial prices to refiners and other -traders.