Trade Storm Imperils Caribbean Banana Crops
|
|
aribbean banana farmers special access to the European Union market. ”Why is America doing this to us?” Mr. Prosper, 53, asked as his crop was being boxed at a weighing station here the other day. ”This is a little place, and this is all that we know, and what we depend on. We have nothing else and we hurt nobody, but now they want to take even this from us.” Much as in neighboring Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, one-quarter of the labor force in this country of 145,000 people is employed in the banana industry, either growing, processing or shipping the fruit. In contrast to Central America, where workers paid as little as $2 a day grow most of Chiquita’s bananas, Caribbean banana workers are mostly independent growers who own the small plots they farm. ”We have avoided the strife and turmoil that has plagued Latin America precisely because we don’t have a plantation economy and our distribution of income is better,” said Rupert Gajadhar, who grows bananas on 15 acres and is the chairman of the St. Lucia Banana Growers Association. ”What do the Americans want to do — reduce us to another Haiti?” The Caribbean banana industry has long had special access to the European market, but the current dispute dates back to 1993, when the European Union adopted a system of preferences that guarantees banana producers in current or former British and French colonies a share of the European Union market, which has the highest per capita consumption of bananas in the world. In turn, a quota was placed on imports of bananas grown in Central and South America, where American producers like Chiquita and Dole Food have led the industry for a century. Those preferences are scheduled to expire by 2002, and are unlikely to be renewed even if the American attempt to eliminate the quotas for Central and South American bananas ultimately fails. But in a preliminary judgment in late March, the World Trade Organization largely endorsed Washington’s position, which is that the quota system unfairly restricts the American companies’ access to the European market. A formal ruling is expected soon. Thomas F. McLarty, Mr. Clinton’s special adviser for Latin American and Caribbean affairs, said the Administration’s policy was based on national interest and belief in free trade. The Clinton Administration recognizes there are ”very deeply felt concerns among those countries that produce bananas,” but ”there are much better ways to solve this problem than just letting it ride.” ”In terms of our primary goal of fair trade, you can’t have discriminatory practices and not exercise your rights,” Mr. McLarty said in a recent interview in Barbados. ”It gets to the very principle of how you conduct your business.” More : query.nytimes.com |