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 Banana Link is a member of the Trade Justice Movement (TJM) - a fast growing group of organisations including trade unions, aid agencies, environment and human rights campaigns, fairtrade organisations, faith and consumer groups. The TJM campaigns for trade justice - not free trade - with the rules weighted to benefit poor people and the environment.
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)
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To download an article by Alistair Smith (Banana Link) about EPAs and the banana industry (2008), click here.
The Tr ade Justice Campaign on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)
Global trade talks in the so-called Doha ‘development’ round at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have failed to deliver any meaningful progress on trade justice. Yet the WTO is not the only negotiations where trade justice is being blocked by rich country governments.
The UK, with its partners in Europe , is part of pushing unfair trade deals on 75 former colonies -some of the poorest countries in the world. In 2005, in response to your calls to make poverty history, the UK Government promised to do all it can to make trade work for the poor. Yet, despite these statements, the UK has allowed the European Union (EU) to push ahead on deals that are unfair to countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The deals are called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) and we have to act fast. The lives of 750 million of the world's poorest people are in the balance as poor farmers and vulnerable producers will be forced into direct competition with rich nations. We must stop these unfair trade deals before Africa and poor countries worldwide are forced to trade away their future.
The Trade Justice Movement is campaigning on EPAs and calling on the UK Government to use its full influence to stop these deals going ahead, to listen to the serious concerns of poor countries and work with those countries to develop new deals that will help deliver trade justice.
Stop the EU's Unfair Trade Deals
 On 19 April 2007 civil society organisations and social movements worldwide held a day of action against the unfair trade deals that the European Union is forcing on 76 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, of which 39 are least developed countries.
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Source: Trade Justice Movement
Take action and be part of the growing campaign across Europe and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries affected by these unfair trade deals.
Email Douglas Alexander , the new UK Secretary of State International Development. Call on the UK Government to change EU trade policies and Europe’s push to have some of the poorest nations on the planet sign up to grossly unfair trade deals.
Visit the TJM website to Take Action and for more information.
Support Caribbean Bananas
 Visit the Support Caribbean Bananas website to read the views of WINFA (the Windward Islands Farmers’ Association) about the need to safeguard the smallest and most vulnerable countries – and their banana industries – in the ongoing EPA negotiations.
Banana Link is very concerned about the proposal to scrap quotas on ACP imports, because of the negative impact this would have on small growers, particularly in the Windward Islands. This would be a further step in the process of erosion of the trade preferences which have allowed some small growers to remain in the market. As far as West Africa is concerned, there is an expansion taking place which will be encouraged by scrapping the ACP quota. This can only harm the market for everybody - inclusing the Latin Americans - as more and more new plantations are opened up in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Cameroon.
TUC Action to Protect Workers Rights
The TUC, in partnership with ACTSA and Traidcraft have produced New Deals, New Danger. EPAs: A Threat to Workers (January 2007)
Take action with the TUC to protect workers rights by writing to Douglas Alexander and making the points outlined below:
EU governments should:
- call on the European Commission to change their approach to the negotiations, and propose alternatives deals that will help reduce poverty.
- champion a thorough review of EPAs and confirm that the negotiations will be
adjusted to take account of its findings.
- ensure that respect for ILO core labour standards is an integral part of any agreement. Rigorous impact assessments should be carried out to examine the
impact of any new agreement on jobs, so that ACP governments and their citizens can make an informed decision on whether to sign an EPA.
- push for changes to the EU’s negotiating mandate so that it drops its unfair demands for trade liberalisation and negotiations on issues that the ACP have
already rejected.
Send letters to
Department for International Development
1 Palace Street
London SW1E 5HE
Tel: +44 (0)20 7023 0000
Or email Douglas Alexander
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