An elevated view of acres of land still under sugar cane cultivation in St. Kitts-Nevis in July last year. St. Kitts officially closed down its sugar industry in 2005. - Photo by John Myers

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP):

Four Caribbean nations will divide a sugar trade quota surrendered by St. Kitts when it shuttered its operations following deep subsidy cuts by the European Union, the industry?s regional spokesman said Saturday.

St. Kitts? production quota of 14,145 metric tons (15,590 tonnes) will be split among Guyana, Jamaica, Belize and Barbados, Guyana?s Foreign Trade Minister Henry Jeffrey said. The exact ratio has yet to be determined.

Jeffrey said the decision was made at an African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) trade group conference this week in Belgium, during which the EU and its former colonies were expected to discuss how to meet a World Trade Organisation deadline to complete regional free trade pacts.

?I am elated at the agreement,? Jeffrey said, calling the support the region received from African and Pacific nations ?a significant act of solidarity?.

The Caribbean had lobbied African and Pacific member nations to allow St. Kitts? quota to be shared among regional producers ever since that island nation?s sugar operations closed in 2005 after nearly 400 years of production.

St. Kitts said high production costs and EU subsidy reductions of 36 per cent made it impossible for their sugar industry to survive. The EU imposed the cuts following a complaint to the World Trade Organisation by rival sugar producers over the ACP nations? preferential access to markets.

Trinidad and Tobago announced earlier this year that it plans to shut down its centuries-old sugar industry, which was pushed to collapse by the EU subsidy cuts, after the 2007 crop is produced.

The Caribbean exports more than half of its annual production of roughly 589,670 metric tons (650,000 tonnes) of sugar to the EU market.