Banana War

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Wed Apr 7 00:09:10 PDT 1999


The US has just won a ruling from the WTO in the banana war allowing it to impose $200 million trade sanctions on European products.

It is interesting this is going on while the NATO allies are coordinating a massive military campaign.

The response in the UK from the Blair government has been to play it down. It has announced that it will compensate the Scottish cashmere industry for the full value of the increased duties. This is important because much of their sales are in the US, and because Labour needs to beat the Scottish National Party in the proportional representation elections due shortly for the first ever Scottish assembly for 350 years.

This suggests to me a degree of state involvement in finance capital that is becoming routine in the thinking of European governments.

In England a coalition of black groups with links in the West Indies have announced a black-led campaign for the boycott of Chiquita bananas.

Chris Burford

London



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