BEGHIN-SAY SEES SOLUTION TO EC SUGAR DISPUTE A settlement could soon be reached in the dispute between European sugar producers and the European Community over EC export licencing policies, Jean-Marc Vernes, president of French sugar producer Beghin-Say, which is leading the protest, told journalists today. "Our contacts with the EC authorities over the past few days indicate that we are moving towards a solution," he said, adding that if this happened the producers would withdraw the 854,000 tonnes of sugar they have offered into intervention. Vernes said that the protest, involving 770,000 tonnes of sugar from French producers alone, was prompted by the EC's policy since mid-1986 of offering export rebates which failed to give producers an equivalent price to that they would obtain by offering sugar into EC intervention. At last week's tender the EC Commission made an apparent concession by offering a maximum rebate only 1.3 European currency units (Ecus) per 100 kilos below the level producers say is needed, compared with the previous week's rebate which was 2.5 Ecus below the necessary level. Vernes would not say what form any compromise between the producers and the EC would take, but he reaffirmed the long-term desire of producers to export to the world market, providing they were not losing money by doing so. Producers can withdraw their intervention offer after April 1, when the sugar will officially enter intervention stores, or at any time over the following five weeks before the official payment date. The EC has threatened to put the sugar back on the internal market if the producers refuse to withdraw their offers.