One of the longest running disputes at the WTO concerns the banana trade. And once again, the banana dispute has popped up this week in Geneva as a stumbling block for negotiators. I sat down this morning with Alistair Smith, expert at Banana Link, to get the latest.
IATP: The WTO is trying to solve a long-standing banana dispute in Geneva. Can you explain to us what's at stake here?
AS: The so-called "banana war" has been bugging trade relations between banana producers in Europe, Africa and the Carribean countries, and Latin American countries for more than 15 years. The dispute revolves around the preferential access to the EU market that some African and Carribean countries enjoy as a result of historical relations. At the WTO, Latin American countries are fighting what they see as a disadvantage for them on the world market.
IATP: What's been proposed over the past few weeks to solve this conflict? Why is it so important in the current WTO ministerial?
AS: Developing countries involved swear they will not agree to a broader deal on Doha unless a satisfactory solution is found on bananas. Pascal Lamy proposed an agreement on July 12, that was accepted by the EU, but the West African and Caribbean countries think it goes too fast and want longer to implement the proposed tariff cuts. Latin American countries put forward a proposal to cut the high EU import tariff a little faster than in Lamy's proposal on July 21; they also offered to leave some other tropical products that are also important to the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific countries) out of the list for cuts to be agreed in the wider agriculture talks. Despite the inevitable doubts of the small Caribbean island exporters, we think the Latin American proposal could prove to be a very significant step towards ending the long-running banana wars. We know that most ACP Ministers are taking the Lamy proposal for tariff cuts over 6 years seriously, even though they have told the Latin Americans they want to keep negotiations on bananas separate from a deal on other tropical products. Some of the biggest Latin exporters, like Colombia and Costa Rica, have publicly stated this week that they can live with the Lamy proposal.
In short, at this critical juncture in Geneva, we believe that, as so often in the past, it is behind-the-scenes corporate lobbies that are endangering the banana peace. Governments and the WTO Secretariat on their own could easily broker the peace required, especially if special measures can be agreed for the small Caribbean island producers in the three Windward Islands and Jamaica.
IATP: Banana Link has been working for years with stakeholders of banana production and trade around the world to improve the sector's sustainability. In your view, what is the way forward on this question?
AS: We are hoping there is agreement on banana tariffs into the EU, because there are other more important issues that need to be addressed within the sector. This dispute has been a significant distraction for the last 15 years. We invite all governmental and private parties to turn their energies to making a real success of the international Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Bananas, scheduled to be launched in 2009. Once parties concerned can take their eyes off the all-consuming issue of euros per tonne duty, then, together with plantation workers' and producers' representatives, we believe that substantial practical advances can be made quite quickly on the range of social, economic and environmental issues facing the sector.
