BANANA ROW CONTINUES.

The trade commissioner for the European Union is angrily denouncing U.S. motives in the banana trade war as "entirely political", reports UPI (February 8, 1999): At issue in the banana trade war is the EU guarantee of preferential access for producers in former British and French African, Caribbean and Pacific colonies. For the U.S., that guarantee comes at the expense of cheaper fruit grown in Latin America; In London, Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan reacted furiously to charges aired on BBC television by U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky who said the U.S. had run out of patience. Brittan told the BBC the U.S. policy was "driven by politics...it is driven by the fact that Chiquita (a large U.S. based banana producer with plantations in Central America) is a company that gives money to the political parties, that the president of Chiquita is very close to Senator Trent Lott, the leader of the impeachment inquiry." Brittan said the U.S. Government had promised Chiquita it would settle the whole matter by March 3; Barshefsky told BBC the U.S. threat to impose punitive damages against EU nations was real and could be expected unless the banana war was resolved. She also complained the EU had blocked progress in January talks at the World Trade Organization in Geneva.