Yes, We Have no Bananas: Re-regulating Global and Regional Trade

Abstract

This paper analyzes competing global and regional attempts to regulate the world banana market in the current era of trade liberalization. We argue that the ongoing trade dispute, the "Banana Wars," is best understood as a conflict between two historically constituted commodity systems: the US centered "Dollar Banana" system and the "ACP Banana" trade between Europe and its former African, Caribbean, and Pacific colonies. Using a comparative commodity system approach, we illuminate the divergent trade geography, state sponsorship, corporate involvement, social relations of production, and environmental conditions characterizing each of these production systems. We highlight the role of political contingency in the global organization of the banana industry and demonstrate how Dollar and ACP Bananas have been socially defined as distinct commodities.

Our analysis explores the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the reregulation of international trade. While recent WTO rulings in the Banana Wars privilege the interests of the United States and transnational corporations, the fate of the banana trade is being hotly contested by international organizations, regional trading blocs, national governments, producer associations, labor,and community groups. This study reveals an incipient Fair Trade Banana system which could represent an important countermovement to the socially and environmentally devastating corporate domination of the agro-food system.