May 11, 1998
WAYS TO REGULATE THE GLOBAL BANANA TRADE
Brussels, May 7 (IPS/Niccolo Sarno) -- The gap between the giant transnational corporations that dominate the global trade in bananas and the ordinary agricultural workers who grow and pick them remains as wide as ever.
But some NGOs think that the gap has narrowed a little, going on the limited results of this week's International Banana Conference here. It brought together, for the first time, banana workers and producers, trade unions, NGOs and the transnationals themselves.
Though there was no agreement, there was some talk and understanding among the representatives. "Only fools would expect anything like an agreement at this conference," said John Daly of the European Banana Action Network (EUROBAN) of the two days of meetings that concluded Wednesday.
"In some cases we have agreed to disagree but to continue talking," he said, "In the banana industry, that is real progress."
The conference did come up with a draft international banana charter, which calls for social and environmental clauses to be included in World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements and increased support for 'fair trade' initiatives, collective labour agreements and codes of conduct.
Backed by EUROBAN -- a network of European organisations concerned with banana producers in developing countries -- and a number of trade union and growers' organisations, the pact, is also being studied by the governments of producer nations including Costa Rica and Ecuador.
Even the transnationals had some positive words for it. "There are a number of very sound proposals in the charter, many of which are already applicable to the Del Monte organisation," said Peter Miller, managing director of Del Monte Fresh Produce (UK).
"But some of the proposals, particularly with regard to control of the market and references to pricing, are beyond the remit of the banana producing companies," he told IPS.
"There are bits of it (the draft charter) which we are already complying, other sides of it which are going to be very, very difficult because they are applicable to the market, and other parts of it which are within the remit of the World Trade Organisation," said Miller.
But the secretary general of the Geneva-Based International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers, Ron Oswald, said the banana transnationals cannot just say "we only buy" from the producers, not set the rules. "They make profits, they are responsible," he said.
"The exploitative behaviour and practices of transnational companies based particularly in Latin American countries is of great concern to us all here," echoed European parliamentarian Glenys Kinnock.
And Erman Zepeda, from the Coordination of Latin American Banana Workers' Union, warned that the transnationals, "which presently allow workers' exploitation and the destruction of our environment without calculating the social consequences in our region".
The WTO, following a request from Ecuador, Guatemala, the United States, Honduras and Mexico, ruled last autumn against parts of the European Union's banana trade and aid protocol, which favours producers from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP).
The WTO said some parts of the pact, such as trade import licensing agreements and the dividing up of quotas among ACP states, breach its free trade rules.
The banana protocol is part of the current aid and trade Lome IV Convention which links the 71 nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states and the 15-member EU, due to expire in February 2000. Negotiations on future relations between the two blocs are due to start this autumn, with key advance sessions at a ACP-EU ministerial meeting in Barbados this week.
The EU's response to the WTO ruling, a new proposal which has still to go through the EU's ruling Council and the European Parliament next June, is a package with two components.
The first one relates to the allocation of quotas, dismantling the licensing system on which the previous banana regime was based. The second part is an aid package which amounts approximately to $350 million and is meant to assist producing countries during a 10-year transition process.
But Kinnock warned that under this proposed system, unless a quota is specifically allocated to countries and regions, the global quota may well be absorbed by those countries that have the big plantations.
Supporters of the ACP-EU banana protocol say it protects small family farmers, especially in the Caribbean, who cannot hope to compete with the cheaper bulk crops produced by the mighty US owned industrialised plantations of Central America.
"We are urging the (EU's executive) Commission to allocate specific quotas for a certain amount of time in order to protect them (Caribbean farmers)," she said during the conference.
Elias John, from the Windward Islands Farmers Association, said the WTO decision is having a tremendous effects on small farmers in the Windward Islands.
"We are aware of the fact that multinational corporations are operating in some of the African countries. They will be able to produce bananas at a cheaper price and dump it in the market," John told IPS. "We need a specific quota," he said.
"Windward island farmers may be out of business within the next two years," he warned. One third of the labour force in the Windward islands is dependent on the production of bananas, with seventy percent of their land area is devoted to the production of bananas.
"If we will see the (EU's executive) Commission proposal as it is go on to the (negotiating) table, I think we will see severe political, social and economic threats to the stability of the Caribbean islands," said Kinnock.
"A specific global ACP quota," added Ron Oswald, "which is what the Commission proposes now, will mean that (the US owned transnationals) Dole and the others, who are working in West Africa, will be able ultimately to squeeze out the banana producers from the small islands' very vulnerable economies."
Elias John remains hopeful. "But I am absolutely sure that the European Union will put some kind of mechanism in place to work around that," he said.