EU: Trade Agreement on Banana Imports

Viscount Montgomery of Alamein Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2012 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Montgomery of Alamein]

My Lords, I join others in congratulating the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, on introducing the debate. I opened the previous one in 2006 and it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness in this great saga of the banana. I seem to have been in the banana debate for many years. In fact, the noble Baroness, Lady Howells, who I follow, mentioned Lord Pitt. He was a great friend of mine. We had many discussions about bananas together in the bar from time to time. I am glad that she mentioned him. We certainly owe him a great debt. He and I were together in that activity.

The problem is that I am once again a lone voice in speaking about Latin American bananas as opposed to ACP bananas. Latin American bananas are unsubsidised and are grown on a much bigger scale. They are of just as good quality as any other bananas, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hooper, pointed out from her experience in Ecuador. I, too, have lived in certain banana-producing countries. I was a resident of El Salvador for some years. Central American republics produce bananas on a very big scale and enjoy a tariff system that is reducing all the time. It will eventually be reduced by 2020 to 75 euros a tonne.

It is understandable that Latin American bananas are voluminous because they are grown on a plantation scale. It is not correct, as has been alleged, that the workers are persecuted and hard done by. For instance, in Colombia the banana plantation workers average 75 per cent above the minimum wage. They are well paid and not a persecuted minority. It is important that we realise that Latin American bananas, which are very good quality, should be allowed to arrive here in reasonable quantities. The central American republics have agreed to a system of tariff reductions over a scale approved by the World Trade Organisation. The World Trade Organisation was set up to encourage a proper system of free trade wherever possible. I like to think that we will be able to get this problem solved. I doubt whether that will happen in the short term because these problems are considered intractable.

I appreciate that the Caribbean countries have special problems. As has been pointed out, they need to diversify their economies and exploit their rights in tourism. As the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, pointed out, the Caribbean beaches are of fantastic quality. Tourism is surely a method of improving their quality of life and providing equal numbers in employment. Hotels are built continuously and require large labour forces to service them. I think the future of the Caribbean lies more in tourism than in producing bananas on small-scale, family-owned smallholdings which inevitably cannot be of the same quality as those produced on a large scale in Latin America.

I welcome a newcomer to this debate, in the shape of the noble Baroness, Lady Stowell. I wish her well in her endeavours to take up the banana cause. I have no doubt that it will not be the last time that we hear about it.