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Commodities
For the past forty years, ACP states have benefited from preferential terms of trade for commodities (agriculture) that are exported to the EU. The sections below will focus on sugar, bananas and rum, the three commodities that are of greatest importance to Jamaica, and which have benefited immensely from preferential access to the European market. With the advent of the WTO, international trade is steering away from non-reciprocal and preferential treatment such as the ACP states have enjoyed. For sugar and bananas especially, whose main export market is the EU, the ending of such arrangements will have significant negative impacts on rural development; efforts to combat crime and reduce levels of poverty; unemployment; and balance of trade.
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