IN a historic four-day meeting ongoing in Kingston, representatives from eight banana producing countries within the Caribbean called for more cooperation among industry stakeholders.

Of primary concern to unions and government representatives were the improvement of working conditions and safety standards and a deepening of the involvement of trade unions at the local and regional levels in influencing the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiating machinery.

The WTO is currently negotiating the replacement of the European Union/African Caribbean Pacific (EU/ACP) preferential regime with a tariff system that could prove to be devastating to the Caribbean region.

Jamaica’s Minister of Agriculture Roger Clarke, in a passionate speech at the Alhambra Inn hotel in Kingston, said ACP countries were competing against countries with poor labour standards, and which therefore were able to produce a cheaper product.

The unfair treatment of workers in some banana producing countries, he said, “could not, would not and cannot happen in Jamaica”.

The region, he added, must lobby for a level playing field for the treatment of workers in the talks now taking place at the WTO level.

At the heart of the negotiations in Geneva – to which the Caribbean has not being invited – and of great concern to regional stakeholders, is the issue of a new tariff regime which the Latin American countries are proposing at 75 euros per tonne.

The figure is almost four times less than the ACP’s 275 euros per tonne proposal, which the grouping says it needs to remain viable exporters.

It is in this light that banana grower and exporter Dr Marshall Hall, chief executive of Jamaica Producers, called on regional trade union representatives to make “a lot of noise” about the welfare of the banana workers and to influence the current negotiations within the WTO.

Hall believes the issue of the new tariff is unlikely to be settled right away.

“The truth is that there will be no agreement at the end of the current negotiation on Article 24 and Article 28 at 275 euros, and it will go to arbitration,” he said.

Hall, who is also chairman of the Caribbean Banana Growers Association, in reference to the new tariff regime (Article 28) that is set to come into effect January 2006, said that if these negotiations go to arbitration, Caricom will have no face in the process.

A unified voice was important Hall said as “each of us are inconsequential” in terms of the total EU market.

According to figures supplied by Hall, the EU – now a 25-country bloc – imports 4.5 million tonnes of bananas per year, of which the ACP countries receive a 750,000 quota, split: 400,000 tonnes for African producers; 350,000 tonnes for the Caribbean, including Dominican Republic and Suriname.

Latin American and US producers already control the bigger share of the EU banana market, 2.9 million tonnes; and the remaining 850,000 tonnes are supplied by producers from within the EU.

The seminar ends today.

Participating countries include Barbados, Belize, St Lucia, Dominica, St Vincent, Grenada and Jamaica.

Sue Langley, the coordinator of agriculture in the Geneva-based International Union of Foods (IUF), said trade unions were critical to the levels of cooperation sought and to the discussions on international trade.

“It is a priority to bring trade unions to such a discussion to highlight the critical issue of workers’ rights”, which, Langley pointed out, are being ignored in many places within Latin America.

“The IUF has spent many years in Latin America to form unions in many places where workers do not have the fundamental right to join a union.”

She was speaking on the second of the four-day session hosted by the FIU Caribbean office headquartered in Barbados.

President of the Allied Workers Union and government senator Trevor Munroe called for unity in light of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).

The single market aspect of the CSME came into effect on January 2, but the formal signing ceremony between the initial parties – Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados – takes place February 19.

“It is of fundamental necessity that there is cooperation within the agricultural sector,” said Munroe. “We must join hands and heart to deal with the issues globally.”

– dorothyc@jamaicaobserver.com