Keep a Lid on ‘Banana War’
Trade disputes can be grimly serious matters, leading to escalating tariffs, restrictions and boycotts that can destroy jobs and threaten the survival of entire industries. There have even been times when they led to genuine shooting wars. Fortunately, the transatlantic trade controversy that currently finds Washington and its friends in the European Union exchanging accusations, barbs and warnings does not rise to that level of danger. It is, after all, an argument over bananas, a product that is hard to take seriously as a fomenter of international discord.
It seems that the Europeans give preference to banana imports from their former colonies in the Caribbean and Africa. That has prompted two big American exporters, Dole and Chiquita, whose bananas come mainly from Central America, to complain that the Europeans are unfairly discriminating against them under the rules of the World Trade Organization. The United States has been pursuing that complaint for six years, and three times the WTO has ruled against the Europeans. But European policy has remained largely unchanged.
This week, Washington increased the pressure. Contending that European restrictions last year cost the American banana companies $520 million, the Clinton administration provisionally imposed 100% tariffs on 15 types of products from 13 European countries. The sanctioned goods range from the luxurious--cashmere sweaters, for example--to the commonplace, including noncorrugated paper or paperboard boxes and cartons. Awaited now is a ruling from the WTO on how much Dole and Chiquita have lost in European sales. Once that is decided, the provisional tariffs will begin to be collected.
Meanwhile, with the threat of retaliation in the air, European trade commissioner Sir Leon Brittan has called for urgent consultations with the United States. By all means let talks proceed in an effort to resolve this matter before things are said and done that might turn an argument into a crisis. The WTO has issued its rulings. The simplest way to settle things is for the Europeans to abide by them.
