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August 02, 2005
They Have Your Best Interests At Heart, Really, They Do.
Heard the latest from the knaves, fools and charlatans in Brussels?
It had planned to lift tariffs on Latin American bananas from €75 (£52m) a ton to €230 from the beginning of next year.
It isn’t just that this is illegal, against the solemn treaty they have signed at the WTO. Think for a moment of what they are actually trying to do.
Apparently it would be a good idea if every mother across Europe paid more for the mashed banana she stuffs down Junior’s throat each morning.
Well, yes, I mean, gosh, well done. We can all see the logic in that, can’t we?
Time to get rid of the idiots.
Ceterum Censeo Unionem Europaeam esse delendam
Update: The idea isdeveloped a little more fully in this piece over at the Globalization Institute. Yes, I not only blame the EU I even provide a solution.
August 2, 2005 in European Union | Permalink
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Comments
Making one of the most popular and healthy fruits less affordable is a good way to ensure healthy eating NOT!
Can the EUSSR explain why I am being fined by them whenever I eat a (not abnormally curved) banana?
Posted by: Rob Read | Aug 2, 2005 11:04:40 AM
Isn't it just fair that every mother across Europe pays for our desire to help our former colonies? It surely is unfair to buy our bananas at low prices from Colombia?
My mind explodes about this kind of "fair" thinking. I'm going to have a banana, from Oxfam.
Posted by: ivan | Aug 2, 2005 11:27:08 AM
As I understand it, this is all the brits fault. Maybe the froggies too, but not sure about that.
In the years after the war we encouraged every farmer with a tiny plot on every tiny island in the caribbean to start growing banananana(help!! where do I stop)s. In return we bought them in preference to the cheaper ones grown by United Fruit on the (non british bits) of the South American mainland. When the WTO (or was it still the GATT back then?) tried to make the EU take duties off we kicked and screamed and begged and got some type of exemption. I think the germans were a bit pissed off though, because, having no carribean colonies to prop up, they were already getting the cheap stuff, and, because the EC took over bananananas at that point, kraut prices went up.
Result?
Krauts unhappy, United Fruit unhappy, America unhappy, brit consumers didn't know anything was happening and several caribbean islands saved from the bankruptcy which should have resulted from our encouraging them into an industry where they had no comparative advantage.
Posted by: Chris harper | Aug 2, 2005 3:32:49 PM
It's all Old Labour's fault. Deeply satisfactory conclusion, Chris.
Posted by: dearieme | Aug 2, 2005 5:23:17 PM
Ah Tim leaves out no opportunity to blame that eeeevil EU,
never mind the facts.
Posted by: Heiko Gerhauser | Aug 2, 2005 5:54:24 PM
Ah Tim leaves out no opportunity to blame that eeeevil EU,
never mind the facts.
Posted by: Heiko Gerhauser | Aug 2, 2005 5:56:14 PM
God I hate bananas.
Posted by: -keith in mtn. view | Aug 2, 2005 6:03:24 PM
"It's all Old Labour's fault."
Yeah, your right. I hadn't followed it through to its final conclusion.
Pity we can't find some way to pin it directly onto Dear Leader, but he was probably being spoon fed the things himself, if he existed at all, back when it all started.
Posted by: Chris harper | Aug 3, 2005 3:21:14 AM
