EU Bananarama III

Brent Borrell

No 1386, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: On July 1, 1993 the European Union (EU) adopted a unified banana policy that is even more distortionary and costly than some of the disparate national policies it replaced. Before, some EU countries gave preferred market access and high prices to banana producers from selected developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific, and from EU territorial suppliers. This preferential status was regarded as a form of aid to countries with historical ties to certain EU countries (France, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, and Spain). Other EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) granted no preferences and either had free trade policies or imposed only low tariffs. The earlier quota-based national policies were inefficient because the main benefits of the quotas and high prices were enjoyed by importers, wholesalers, and retailers in the quota-restricted countries. Under the unified EU policy, quotas, high prices, and preferential access provide aid to preferred suppliers, but cost EU consumers dearly and the quota restrictions hurt nonpreferred suppliers (mainly Latin American countries). But the main problem with the new policy is that it extends protection (and consequent inefficiencies) to countries where it didn't exist before. As the costs of the new EU policy become better understood, new forces are emerging that will probably create pressure for change over the next decade. Banana producers who now receive aid through preferential access to the EU banana market are likely to lose those preferences. This could deal a hefty blow to several small Caribbean island economies and some African countries. But much more efficient alternative mechanisms exist through which the European Union could grant aid to these economies. The European Union and the favored Caribbean countries could all gain much by shifting from banana aid to formalized, targeted general development aid.

Keywords: Environmental Economics&Policies; Gender and Law; Markets and Market Access; Access to Markets; Gender and Law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994-12-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... d/PDF/multi0page.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:1386

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().