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Banana Producing States Called Upon to Take Advantage of EU Reprieve

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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.

 

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