TRADE ministers from the Windward Islands and Jamaica have warned that further changes now proposed to the European Union banana regime could lead to illegal immigration, drug cultivation and trafficking and the accelerated development of criminal gangs.

The ministers, who were attending the 9th ACP Ministers of Trade meeting in Brussels this week, preparatory to the WTO Ministerial conference in Hong Kong later in the month, said in a statement that changes already induced by earlier adjustments in the EU banana regime “have had devastating consequences for production and impacted negatively on social conditions in the Caribbean”.

Jamaica was represented by K D Knight, the minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade.

The trade ministers said that the replacement of the current banana import regime on January 1, 2006 with a single tariff and phasing out of the historically based licensing system for the ACP quota, would have profound negative consequences for banana producers in the Caribbean and the wider ACP traditional banana supplying countries.

“The changes will lead to lower prices and incomes for farmers and the loss of predictability and stability that are so essential for the production and shipping of this highly perishable fruit. The most vulnerable banana producers are situated in the Caribbean and they will be forced out of the market. For those who are left the increased competition and lower prices will oblige them to cut costs at the expense of workers and of the environment,” said a statement from the ministers.

According to St Lucia’s Minister for External Trade, Petrus Compton, “bananas are the bedrock upon which the Windward Islands more vulnerable communities.are constituted. Banana exports sustain a way of life, like few other sectors in the Caribbean can. If we are unable to profitably trade in bananas, the very social fabric of our countries will be dislocated,” he said.

“.The Caribbean is concerned that the subject of bananas has been put on the agenda of the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference, posing an additional challenge to a satisfactory outcome of this issue. We are equally concerned about the request by Panama and Honduras for formal consultations within the WTO DSU on the new EU banana tariff,” said the statement from the ministers.

In the meantime, they repeated a call for the EU to postpone the implementation of their new proposal.

“We call on Panama and Honduras to cease their further recourse to the WTO dispute settlement procedure and for all parties to engage in genuine negotiations aimed at achieving a fair solution.

“The Caribbean will not be relegated to a position of third party bystanders in any resolution of the banana issue, unlike our experience during the recently-concluded WTO Arbitration process. We, therefore insist that we be part of any agreement reached, and wish to serve notice that we too are willing to fight all the way to Hong Kong and beyond, to protect countries from the risk of even more poverty and destitution,” said the ministers.