SUGAR beet producers in the region and the British Sugar Factory in York would be hit by the "catastrophic" effects of new European Union trade rules, it has been claimed.

Former Tory minister Gillian Shephard told MPs the measures, designed to help the world's poorest countries, would deal a "hammer blow" to the UK sugar beet industry, which provides 23,000 jobs.

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh has spoken of the alarm in her constituency about the Government's plans.

The European Commission has announced that sugar would be included in the list of commodities to be subject to its Everything But Arms (EBA) policy, allowing the world's 40 least-developed countries to export it to the EU free of duty and quotas.

Miss McIntosh said the impact of the proposals on sugar beet producers in the Vale of York and the British Sugar Factory, in York itself, would be "significant".

"Producers in North Yorkshire simply cannot afford either the quota cut of up to 40 per cent threatened by the Everything But Arms proposals or a price cut," said Miss McIntosh.

"They need a period of stabilisation to justify the substantial investments they make in these crops, many of which have been destroyed in the recent floods.

"Regrettably, these proposals are being rushed through without proper consultation."

Grant Burton, a sugar beet farmer at Wilberfoss, near York, who supplies the British Sugar Factory in York, said: "If we have our quotas cut by 40 per cent the York sugar beet factory could well be under threat of closure.

"The NFU, British Sugar and Tate & Lyle have all joined together to lobby the Government. It is the first time they have all got together to do this and that is because the situation is so serious.

"But we have been given a very short timetable."

John Smith, spokesman for British Sugar, said: "Under the EBA proposals every tonne entering the EU will result in a one tonne quota cut.

"If there are further price cuts this will threaten the viability of beet growing and processing in the UK. The weakness of the Euro has already resulted in a 30 per cent reduction in beet and sugar prices expressed in sterling."

He said he was unable to comment on the impact on individual factories such as the one in York.

Joyce Quin, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, said the Government understood the concerns about the proposals and had raised them with its European partners.

The European Commission would want to consider the results of impact studies she said, promising to push the issues "very strongly".