The recently signed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) that extends the freedom of the European marketplace for ACP bananas, and also grants reciprocity to European products making the opposite journey, will not be good news for the Windward Islands industry, according to key political and trade spokesmen.
Cariforum (the forum of the Caribbean ACP states) - which includes Caricom and the Dominican Republic - signed the agreement with the EU which sees the EU extended duty free, quota-free market access. Additionally, the banana industry will continue to receive funds under a Special Framework of Assistance (SFA) in the interest of helping the industry to increase productivity.
While the signing of the agreement is being trumpeted as a strategic economic advance for the region by some, the 10 additional years of unlimited access that the EPA gives ACP countries will inevitably intensify competition in both markets, says Bernard Cornibert, chief executive of Wibdeco. He warns producers in the Caribbean to respond accordingly.
In an article published in the St Lucia Star, Cornibert is quoted as saying: “The EPA does not bring any additional benefit to the banana industry, if anything it makes it a little worse for the banana industry.”
St Lucia’s trade minister Guy Mayers was, however, less equivocal, describing the signed agreement as “the best it could be”, but a new sale and purchase agreement between Wibdeco and the Windward Islands Farmers’ Association (WINFA) reflects the consequences of the accord.
Cornibert said: “This means that Wibdeco will not be renewing its purchase agreements with the local banana companies. In St Lucia, the private banana companies that are not affiliated to WINFA will have to enter into contractual arrangements with WINFA as their service provider.”
He added that the increase in competition will inevitably affect price. “There are countries in the ACP and certainly the Windward Islands who did not want the quota-free and duty-free components. We know we have our own limitations in terms of the amount of bananas we can export. In the end, we got what we didn’t want. If I were the minister I would have said that we didn’t really want this quota-free thing because it means there is no stopping the larger producers from dumping any amount of bananas they want on the market and depressing prices.
“What this EPA does is to open the floodgates. Anybody who presents the EPA as if somehow it is weighing additional benefit…It brings absolutely nothing more than what we have now, if anything it brings danger ahead. There is no good in the EPA for bananas,” said Cornibert.
The newspaper concluded its article by quoting Cornibert again: “If I had 10 acres of land and I had some money I wouldn’t invest it in bananas. So I wouldn’t advise anybody to invest in bananas,” he reportedly said.
