http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704541004574599902791059822.html
a.. DECEMBER 17, 2009, 3:38 P.M. ET Bananas No More The EU will gradually lower tariffs on Latin American bananas. World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy called it "one of the most technically complex, politically sensitive and commercially meaningful legal disputes ever brought to the WTO." News reports routinely refer to it as one of the longest-running trade disputes in the world. It concerns what an esoteric philosopher once called "proof of the existence of God." After the Berlin Wall fell, it was handed out in bunches like "celebratory bouquets." We mean bananas, of course. This week, the interminable trade dispute between the EU and Latin America over that user-friendly fruit appears to have drawn to a close. The EU will lower its tariffs on Latin American bananas, banana prices will fall a little in Europe, and the fruit will trade a little more freely in the global marketplace. The deal will phase in over nearly a decade, and in 2017 the European Union will still hit Latin American bananas with a tariff of ?114 a ton, while providing tariff-free access for banana-growers fortunate to live in former French colonies and other privileged locales. That's not exactly a free-trade revolution. But it's a far cry from the days when French wine, Scotch whisky and cashmere sweaters were variously dragged in as tariff-hostages in banana wars. As recently as five years ago, the former Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe feared that EU import quotas would deprive them of their beloved bananas. Even now, advocates for the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries that enjoy privileged access to the EU market-and will continue to do so under the deal agreed this week-insist that this is not about protectionism, but about big, bad multinationals ruining the livelihoods of small farmers. As part of the deal, small farmers who just happen to live in former European colonies will get a one-time payoff of ?200 million to ease the blow from greater competition for European banana budgets. We'll leave it to others to ponder the deeper significance of the EU's banana preoccupation, but whether it's regulations on their curvature or tariffs, quotas and now subsidies, bananas have long enjoyed an outsized role in the doings of Brussels. Given the fraught history, it's almost hard to believe that this dispute has been put to rest for good. At this point, we'll settle for half a banana. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
