The Geneva Agreement
on Trade in Bananas was concluded in 2009. The Director-General of the World
Trade Organization (WTO) applauded the successful effort by the Latin American
banana-producing nations, the United States and the European Union ending a
twenty-year dispute on trade in bananas by using ‘pragmatism, creativity and
diplomacy’. This paper outlines the steps that culminated in the pragmatic and
creative approach that resolved one of the most commercially meaningful,
politically sensitive, and technically complex global trade disputes. The
approach taken was a deliberate move away from litigation over legal rights and
obligations to a facilitated solution reconciling the parties’ interests using
good offices and mediation. This article, in memory of Dr Frieder Roessler,
acknowledges his guidance and support to me as Counsel at the Advisory Centre
on WTO Law during this final innovative phase of the banana trade wars. Frieder
was a remarkable trade lawyer with a laser-focus on pragmatic solutions. I feel
fortunate to have been given the opportunity to propose the use of Alternative
Dispute Resolution (ADR), and then to have served as Counsel, during the final
mediation and negotiation phase that resolved this major trade dispute. The
experience resolving the banana trade wars through pragmatic non-binding ADR is
pertinent at a time when the most significant disputes in global trade are less
likely to be resolved through litigation and binding decisions.