Bernard Cornibert, managing director of Windwards Bananas (Wibdeco), has asked freshinfo to clarify his position on the recent Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), after our FPJ article two weeks ago - ‘Windwards unhappy at EPA’.

“The Windwards are not unhappy at the EPA,” he said. “They were involved in the negotiation of the EPA and they understood the need for the EPA or a reciprocal trading agreement with the EU to avoid disputes in the WTO over the preferential arrangements. Indeed, without the EPA, exports from the CARIFORUM countries would have faced GSP tariff from January 1, 2008, unless some form of alternative interim arrangement was in place.

“Therefore, we support the governments signing some form of agreement with the EU to avoid the GSP tariff. That this was done at the eleventh hour was not ideal, because it meant that the governments were signing the agreement under time pressure, with the possibility of having to give grounds on some important aspects.”

Cornibert said an article in St Lucia Star was the result of an unofficial conversation that was misrepresented. “The EPA was not intended to improve things for the ACP suppliers and, therefore, it does not bring any additional benefit or preferential advantage to the Windwards or the ACP generally. All it has done is to protect what they enjoyed up to the end of 2007,” he said.

“However, because the EPA removed the quantitative restrictions on duty-free imports from the ACP and therefore the last vestige of market management, potentially it could make matters worse for high- cost suppliers like the Windward Islands. The Windwards do not have the capacity to take advantage of the unlimited duty-free access conferred by the EPA.”

He said Wibdeco is not discouraging investment in bananas in the Windwards. “The banana business is becoming increasingly competitive and the future is looking more and more uncertain for the least competitive suppliers. Therefore, our advice to producers is to make a realistic assessment of the medium- to long-term future of the business before making any investment decision. While we do not discourage investment in increased production for the future, we should not actively encourage it based on how we see the future from our current vantage point. Instead, we encourage our producers to consolidate their current production, improve productivity, reduce unit cost and above all diversify their crop production.”

Cornibert added that there is no connection between the EPA and a change in supply arrangements between Wibdeco and local firms.

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