KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – A senior banana official has blasted a new tariff agreement between the European Union (EU) and Latin America on the commodity as an “act of treachery” and warned that it will bring on the demise of the industry in the Windward Islands and the rest of the Caribbean.
The EU and Latin America have said they are close to signing an agreement that will end the long-running “banana wars”. Under the deal, the tariff paid by Latin American producers will be significantly lowered.
Coordinator of the Windward Islands Farmers Association (WINFA), Renwick Rose said the compensation being offered under the deal by the EU to countries of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping was inadequate.
“When you look at large African producers like Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ghana, it’s a drop in the bucket what we (in the Windward Islands) will get. And we are the most vulnerable because in those African countries the same American multinationals are already producing there. So, they have a foot in both camps,” Rose told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) in an interview.
“So, we are the ones who will suffer most and it is going to have serious implications for the livelihood of farmers in the rural communities, particularly because 40 per cent of our banana farmers are women – many of them are single parents and heads of households,” he added.
Reports from Europe last week said that the EU had agreed to lower the import duty on Latin American banana on European markets from the current 176 euros per tonne to 148 euros per tonne in January 2010 and subsequently to 114 euros.
According to Rose, the European Union is offering a compensation package of 190 million euros to ACP countries.
As a result, the WINFA coordinator said it is clear that the new agreement is designed to sacrifice the Caribbean as a region in preference for Latin America. He warned further that the new tariff arrangement will have serious implications for the economies of the banana producing Windward Island countries.
“Further lowering of the tariff would only make it difficult for us to compete without adding significantly to increasing their market share. It is just like pushing us out of the market completely.”
Rose said that prior to the Caribbean signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe last year, “one of the things they sold to us in the Windward Islands is that the EPA was going to give us guarantees in terms of the continuation of the banana market”.
He said that WINFA and other non-governmental organisations in the region had warned Caribbean governments not to sign the trade accord but they “went ahead and signed and it is clear now, as far as the European Union is concerned, they are taking free trade arrangements to Central America and the Andean Block”.
He said the ACP countries had put forward counter proposals for a three year moratorium after the first reduction in January from 275 euros to enable these countries to adjust to the increased competition and try to make themselves competitive but these proposals have been ignored by the EU.
The WINFA coordinator also expressed dissatisfaction with how Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments have handled the banana matter. Rose said that he has been involved at several fora within the region on matters relating to maintain Caribbean banana access into Europe and he does not get a sense of urgency from Caribbean leaders and officials.
“I think it’s almost as though our governments feel that they are helpless,” Rose said.
“But I feel there must be something we can do to avert the situation. We in the Windward Islands – Dominica and St. Vincent – have good relations with Venezuela. We have good relations with Mexico. CARCICOM as a whole and Trinidad and Tobago are developing relations with Costa Rica. Guyana has good relations with Brazil. I don’t think that we have sufficiently tried to impress upon our Latin American brothers, that they are hurting our interest in the Caribbean,” he said in the interview with CMC.
For more than a decade, Latin American banana producers and the US have engaged the EU in a trade dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), claiming that the respective tariffs imposed on Latin American banana entering European markets are unfair and violate WTO rules since ACP countries, many of which are former European colonies, enjoy a 775,000 tonne duty-free import quota.
The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body has supported the claims, and the European Union has been under ongoing pressure to change its policies.
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