Banana Producing States Called Upon to Take Advantage of EU Reprieve |
Contact:
John
Emmanuel
Thursday, April
26, 2001
-
The need for Caribbean banana producing states to put their houses in order, so
as to take advantage of the four-and-a-half year reprieve granted by the
European Union on banana imports, has again been underscored by local
agricultural officials. The latest admonition is coming from Permanent Secretary
in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Dr. Jimmy Fletcher.
Whereas calls have been echoed for a longer transition period, Dr. Fletcher is
of the view that the time granted is sufficient. “The
longer the transition period we give ourselves, the less we will take to do what
needs to be done. We know what we have to do and I think that it’s imperative
that we do it now and do it right. Otherwise we will keep comforting ourselves
by the fact that we have all of this time,” Dr Fletcher said. According
to him, “we must also keep in mind that these tariff rates quotas are being
dismantled by a lot of other activities that are taking place. So you may think
that you have a tariff rate quota that allows you to bring in 750 thousand tons
of bananas into the UK but through some of the other activities that are taking
place, you may find that this quota is absolutely meaningless.” Meanwhile,
the region’s Lead Technical Advisor and Negotiator to the WTO Dr. Patrick
Antoine, says he’s not satisfied that the right message is being sent out from
Caribbean banana producing states. Dr. Antoine is of the view that the message
on the way forward lacks consistency. In
the words of Dr. Antoine, “I think we’ve made a number of important advances
relative to 1994. For instance, I think that the decision of the Heads of
Government including the Government of St. Lucia to create the Caribbean
Regional Negotiating Machinery and to negotiate jointly on a co-ordinated basis
and advance a regional position, facilitates essentially us being in a better
position than we was in 1994. But I’m still not satisfied internally that
everyone has been sensitised to the fact that individually as nation states, we
are not going to be taken seriously but collective we are a force. I’m still
not sure that the murmurings I’ve head from within some of the states indicate
that they themselves understand the importance of this collective negotiating
strategy,” Dr. Antoine ended. Negotiations undertaken jointly by the region is believed to have suffered in the past, due to a lack of consistency from individual states, in implementing and carry out the agreed terms. |
© 2001 Government Information Service. All rights reserved. Read our privacy guidelines. |