Very interesting article and not surprising.COLTRANE, FredBlack and others would love to see your responses.

http://hir.harvard.edu/articles/inde...276&page=1

old news

and many knew america was behind the push to remove the preferential treatment. another reason free trade is bad for anyones economy that is not strong growing or doing for the people

@BS you heard LadyDay..Spent 6 months or so running around like a what rallying this and that. But we were buggered from the off because Clinton was in bed with the Costa Ricians, Chiquetta and that mob who donated $1,000,000 to his re-election campaign so we were burning shoe leather and phone money for nothing.

But what really pissed me off is this, despite the US mad desire to make sure that the only preferential trading is for Latin American countries who produce inferior fruit product and pay their labour money which you would be an insult to an Eastern Caribbean union leader with as payment for a days work. But what really killed me is the measely $1, 000, 000 dollars they gave Clinton, when you consider the type of serious money the upper middle and ruling elite have and how they earn it.

But they don't have one ounce of patriotism to knock that type of money up without even blinking and offer Clinton a sweetener to keep it off the front burner for a couple of years so we can organise and get our shit together if and when we have to bite the bullet because we know where the US wanst to go anyway. Even though they are the one's who earn the most from bananas, because they own the land people and cars and most of the material stuff people purchase when they haver money. They get it. So they refuse to spend money even to continue making money. Nope they simply cut their lossess and look for some other scam to make more money.

Nah, have people running around like arses, farmers and their families protesting and blocking up the damn country, farmers got killed in clashes with policeand shit like that for what was a done deal once that Chiquetta money was cashed and safely in the bank.

FBconfused3

I remember Ghadafi wanted to buy all bananas from Carribean at their choice of price but those countries refused due to pressure from US&EU

i am just glad the caribbean are putting together their own agriculture community

we should try and buy only caribbean produce

They had a report on TV this morning saying that UK buys more fair trade food than anywhere else, I think we should buy more.

Ill be honest Ive never actually checked where my bananas or any other fruits originate, I just buy the cheapest ones... Ill have to rethink after examining some of the politics involved.

when i said only caribbean produce i was referring in-line with this thread. we should be active in buying produce from africa and the caribbean

@Coltrane. That shows you what these people are and why as my father use to say when you shake hands with a white man count your fingers afterwards, because after they have gone back against agreements which gave smaller and weaker countries a chance to at least get a foot in the door, when it suits they change the game. But what is so disgusting what does the US know about fair trade when it uses every mechanism known to economist to prevent that.

I remember last year, them raising hell at cheap Vietamese fish and going to all lenghts to stop it. Same with cars once upon a time when these crackers were attacking their own who did not buy US vehicles which was the working mans response to support the heap of penalties and obstacle they were trying to put up against Japan.

So after stabbing us in the back and face, they then have the front to tell us not to sell our fruit to LIbya. LadyDay excuse me princess. but who the **** are they and who do they think they are talking to?

Look at Antigua right now who are head to head in a war with the US over all things internet gambling. Some sweaty Sryian Arab in another one of their great contribution to the economy and characteristic of their development of our region and role within it, started internet gambling hosted in the island.

They yanks have gone ballistic and are screaming WTO and all kinds of legalistic shite to make sure they stop anybody challenging them to monopolise whatever industry it is, even a sleazy non industry like gambling. Might take a couple of dollars out of the pocket of the Las Vegas mob.

This is why the business and political class are silenty oppotimistic about China's interest in our regional affairs.

LadyDay is on the ball again. We should not buy Latin American bananas for a whole heap or reasons, particularly given the way workers are treated which you couldn't dare and come with in banana producing countries. Our workers and have fought an died for a decent wage for their effort.

I will not have them in this house and if they get here it is by accident with the wife buying them in some big supermarket on the way home, but never with me around. The best place to buy 5 Isle bananas is usually in the market.

Share holders like me and others organised to make sure Tesco and Sainsbury's honoured its committment to qualiity produce and good prices and kept our products on its shelves for years. But once we blinked they did a U turn, probably because they were being seriously undercut by Latin products and despite all the ethical commitments they run a business.

Every Latin American banana you buy is directly harming my family' businesses and the people they employ and our immediate village communities in a very very direct way. so I cannot be seen eating or will I ever a Latin American banana. About 7 years ago and you went to my uncle's various mechanical engineering busineses and work shops, you would see about 20 mechanics and engineers of all sorts, including quite a few of young apprentices all of whom are from our local village.

Our food businesses were booming, as all the workers and the traffic they brought in went to our establshments or those around the corner in the next village, many of whom are run by other close family or long tme neighbours.

My uncle had key maintance contracts for banana conveys which were very lucrative, allowing him to employ plenty staff and maximum capacity and growing. Moreover, because there were so many high skilled engineers of all sorts around, most of the transport operators would bring their vehicles as they did not have to wait long to be scheduled in. All you saw were men and machines.

Now my cousin who runs that end of the business, if you go there a very small number of staff and hardly any youths doing their apprenticeships etc. The banana industry contains many sub industries very specialised in character eg the provision of water system machinary, people to install and maintain them and I can go on.


So the impact on the rural and national economy is very very heavy and directly related in young men moving to the city "to look a dollar" not knowing how they are going to get it, crime and a whole heap of other negative things.

FB

The Windward Islands' guaranteed fixed share of the European banana market is being abolished. With many livelihoods at risk from Latin America's competitive "dollar banana", thousands of farmers in Dominica are asking the European Union for help.
The EU traditionally favoured imports from former colonies
The sofa must date from colonial days. With elegant legs and gently curved arms it might have graced the house of one of the planters who came to make their fortune from coffee, sugar or limes.
Those crops and the people who profited from them are long gone.
But the descendants of the slave labour they used still farm this lush island.
Now the sofa is used as a bed.
It stands hard against the tin and waste-wood walls of Bella Joachim's small and shabby home, high up on the emerald hillsides of the Layou valley.
Rummaging under the sheets and seat cushions, she pulls out carefully sealed plastic envelopes holding meticulously completed charts and tables.
"These are my farm records," she says proudly. "To sell bananas to the UK we have to be as good as the best farmers in the world."
Today is harvesting day. With 75 boxes - that's over 1,000 kilos of bananas - to select, cut, trim, wash, check again, bag, pack and despatch down to the port - Bella, clad in apron, hat, rubber boots and gloves, has to get on.
I teeter down the precipitous slope to where Bella's husband, Jose, is cutting.
Coloured ribbons twist and flutter at the base of the maturing fruits which hang protected from insects and birds in turquoise plastic.
Carefully cut
"All the fruits with yellow ribbons are ready," he tells me and I duck and bend to follow him under the canopy of giant leaves.
So gently, so as not to bruise or blemish the green fruit, he uses a small curved blade to cut bunches from the over-hanging cluster.
The Windward Islands used to provide most of the UK's bananas
"Mind!" he says, as it's time to move to the next plant.
With a sweep of his shining cutlass the fat stem of the mother plant is sliced and topples noisily to the ground.
A few more stages and finally the fruits are safely tucked into their packaging.
Fairtrade (Tesco kid's) fun size, says the happy logo on the plastic bags.
Truth is, there's not much fun at all in the banana business these days.
For 10 years or more the Windward Islands have clung on to the chance to sell on to our supermarket shelves despite the protestations from the multinational banana companies of Latin America.
They have used World Trade Organisation machinery to bulldoze smaller producers - and their guaranteed place in the European market - out of the way.
And now it's crunch time.
Everyone I meet in the banana chain in Dominica is aware of how serious the island's predicament is - from the farmers like Bella to the swarthy stevedores racing to load this week's harvest into the gleaming white banana boat in the few hours it comes alongside each Wednesday.
At night the rainforests of Dominica are a cacophony of sound.
Tonight there's also the engine of a minibus snaking the switchback roads to collect 25 farmers from all over the island.



They are to fly to St Lucia where Caribbean negotiators are meeting with EU Commissioner Peter Mandelson in what may be one of the few chances to influence the EU presidency.
The farmers want their voices heard.
And by mid-morning the farmers from Dominica - flags and banners in hand - are joined by chanting colleagues from Martinique, St Vincent and St Lucia.
Their ranks are swelled still more by shopkeepers, tailors and many other trades whose livelihoods will be threatened if banana-growing goes.
Emotional outpouring
Renwick Rose is, ordinarily, a quietly-spoken man whose shoulders seem weary of the burden of trying to bring the plight of Windward Island farmers to the attention of the world.
But when, after a succession of rousing speeches, he takes to the platform, he is transformed.
"We didn't escape slavery to come to this. We support making poverty history but what we have here is the chance to stop making poverty the future.
"Will we have to wait until we hold starving children in our arms and flies round our noses before the world wonders what happened to the bananas we used to sell?"
Applause and emotion erupts.
The rally is over. A downpour begins. The lettering on the placards begins to run. The crowd disperses and the excitement, and even the feeling of strength, ebbs away.
I, too, have to leave. I find Bella. She is sure that the rally will make a difference.
"If you are small you can expect to always be at the bottom as the big one will be on top of you but what's important is you're being heard."
She slips her arm through mine. I know, like all the other farmers that there's much more she wants to say.
But with a sigh, she leaves it unsaid.
"You take care," she tells me. "And don't forget to buy Windward Island bananas."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme...nt/4319500.stm

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