Word: banana
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Germans laid the groundwork for this controversy by starting World War II, which led to food rationing, which led to a European craving for bananas. The English, whose food is barely edible even in peacetime, encouraged banana farming in their Caribbean colonies to guarantee themselves a continuous and secure supply of something fun to eat. The French followed suit...
...This banana split is one small example of how diplomats and economists can promote free trade and all the GATT principles they want, but the basic issues can be talked to death and never get resolved. Like free love, free trade breaks down whenever there are people involved who want to protect their interests -- in this case, bananas...
Remembering how the islands kept them in fresh fruit during hard times, the English decided to protect their loyal suppliers with tariffs and quotas levied against the giant banana producers on the South American mainland. This quota system was adopted by the European Economic Community in a close vote in 1993, with several banana-eating countries strongly opposed, most notably the Germans...
...free-market side of the banana split you've got the Germans, who want all they can eat (in this case, 19 lbs. per person per year) at low prices; the trio of giant producers, Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte, which together account for 60% of the world output and want open borders and a fair fight, and may the best banana win; and the various banana republics where Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte operate...
Favoring tariffs, quotas and the unfree market are an assortment of African states and Caribbean islands in cahoots with their banana-loving former colonizers, all of whom have weighed in on the side of preserving the small banana farm, which is the sole source of support for many laid-back islanders. Normally well-behaved people on both sides of the issue have been insulting each other's bananas through at least two different rounds of GATT talks, calling the rival bananas "skinny," "tasteless," "rotten" and "easily bruised." Both GATT panels have ruled that the banana quota system is a restraint...