Amidst the bad news on trade this week, time for a good news story!  The European Union has finally been forced to lower--but not drop--the absurd tariffs on efficient producers that have prevented consumers in Europe from purchasing bananas harvested in Latin America that are far cheaper than those currently entering the EU market duty-free.  The EU is now finally allowing consumers to decide what bananas they prefer and where they want them to come from.  Sort of.

It's been EU trade policy for some time to offer preferential rates on bananas and other agricultural products from ex-colonies such as Barbados and Cameroon, which is great.  Problem is that banana producers in these countries are vastly less efficient than their counterparts in Latin American countries such as Ecuador, Colombia and Costa Rica, who can produce bananas at far cheaper price for EU consumers. 

The World Trade Organisation has ruled that these EU tariffs unfairly discriminate these mostly Latin American producers, and the EU's tariffs must be harmonised and dropped.  Unfortunately the prospect of cheaper bananas in Europe will only become a reality in 2016 at the earliest when the EU will drop tariffs to $114 a tonne from the whopping $176 a tonne that they are now.

We say, why wait for 2016?  And furthermore, why not drop the tariff to 0 to give all banana producers the best chance to sell their produce in Europe?  Why must dumb EU trade policy determine the origin of the bananas we eat?