The Banana Split: Has the Stalemate Been Broken in the WTO Dispute? The Global Trade Community\u27s A-Peel for Justice?

This Comment examines the latest developments of the banana trade dispute, which threatens to disrupt, the economies of Third World countries and international relations on a general scale. Part I reviews the background of the legal treaties and the international organizations involved in the dispute, as well as the parties involved, and the dispute\u27s basic history. Part II examines the dispute\u27s procedural history, as presented before the World Trade Organization (“WTO”), and also highlights recent developments. Part III evaluates the WTO\u27s legal rulings and analyzes key aspects of the banana dispute. Part III also suggests that while the system of preferential treatment, granted to the developing countries, contradicted the language of certain GATT provisions, the principles behind the preferential treatment complied with the tenets of international economic development law; therefore the treatment was not per se wrong. Part III suggests that the present regime should remain for a short transition period until the EU implements an alternative system. Finally, Part III suggests the most feasible alternative is a regionalized cooperative agreement between the EU and the developing countries. This Comment concludes that under international development law, globalization should be advanced with preferential treatment, in order to give participants, at various stages of economic prosperity, the same opportunity to integrate themselves and grow in the international trade community