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Article Excerpt
Latin American banana producers advanced their cause on Aug. 1 when the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled in their favor against a European Union (EU) proposal to raise import tariffs on the region's bananas (see NotiCen, 2004-11-04). The proposal would have affected only Latin America's bananas, while those from African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries would enter at preferential rates. The WTO found the scheme illegal. After that finding, the EU was given ten days to start negotiations with Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela.
EU trade director Peter Mandelson said he would set talks without delay to find a mutually acceptable solution. The EU started experimenting with ways to favor its former colonies over the large corporate producers of Latin America around the beginning of 2005. The APC countries typically produce bananas on family-owned small farms, whereas the Latin American product comes mostly from large plantations owned by multinational corporations, under conditions that have for many years been criticized for labor abuses and environmental practices.
In Mandelson's opinion, "The tariff proposed by the EU...
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