CBC chair challenges Clinton administration to change policy on Caribbean banana trade

Congressional Black Caucus Chair Maxine Waters recently denounced a U.S, backed effort to cut European market access for Caribbean banana growers and challenged the Clinton administration to reverse its current policy.

During a news conference, Waters, who recently traveled to the eastern Caribbean on a fact-finding mission with a delegation organized by the Washington, D.C.-based TransAfrica, said the group discovered that "the banana trade is the lifeblood of the eastern Caribbean economy." Waters also said "the social consequences of a disruption of the banana trade would be sever -- in the eastern Caribbean itself, and with serious implications for the United States."

Related Results

Last May, the U.S. filed a formal complaint concerning the trade preferences with the newly formed World Trade Organization (WTO), which settles such disputes.

If the U.S. is successful and Europe's market access to Caribbean banana growers is cut TransAfrica Executive Director Randall Robinson contends the result to the Caribbean Island democracies will be devastating. "Up to 70 percent of hard currency export earnings in the Caribbean Islands are tied directly to bananas," he said. TransAfrica is asking the U.S. Trade Representative's office to review the matter and declare publicly that the U.S. won't enforce the Policy change even if the WTO ruling, expected this month, affirms the U.S. position.