Banana first, now gambling

Small Caribbean countries were also targetted when the US threw its support behind a 1995 complaint by Chiquita, the world’s major banana company that the EU banana regime put its business in Europe at a disadvantage. The WTO concluded that elements of the regime were inconsistent with the GATT, devastating many of the islands that depended on the EU’s preferential treatment for their fruit. In many of Windward Islands, bananas previously made up for over half of total exports while the banana industry provided employment for one-third of the population.

Caribbean sugar producers are also facing another threat, this time from three major countries Australia, Brazil and Thailand over the EU’s sugar regime for the African, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) countries. As Sir Ron was apt to say, what is good for the goose, is also good for the gander.