Lead regional head on bananas calls for speedy end to fair-trade impasse
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Contact: Chris Satney
Tuesday, 27 May 2008 – Saint Vincent’s Prime Minister Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, who has lead role for bananas in the region, has deemed an ongoing Fair-Trade impasse between WIBDECO and private banana companies as unfortunate.
Prime Minister Gonsalves, at the end of the 47th meeting of the OECS Authority on Saturday, said the efforts of the banana Companies, WIBDECO and island governments should be on new EU trading rules and the protests in the World Trade Organisation against those rules.
The impasse, the subject of ongoing court proceedings, was discussed by OECS Heads at their St. Lucia meeting, held at the Bay Gardens Resort.
“We have all the big issues with the trade and market regime; the challenges we are having, but internally we are fighting among ourselves, for a declining volume of production,” he suggested. “This one wants to be controller, and that one wants to be controller. One set going to court, while another set is against those going to court. We may find ourselves fighting and fighting and destroying it among ourselves. We have to get beyond that.” said Prime Minister Gonsalves.
The Caribbean banana market was slammed with more grief in April after the World Trade Organisation ruled that the European Union’s import duties on Caribbean fruit were in breach of global trade rules.
Despite lowering its import duties on bananas for countries that were not former colonies, a WTO panel ruled the current banana import policy and European Union have continued preferential tariff quota for the African, Caribbean, Pacific group of countries, is inconsistent with WTO rules. |
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