Letter: Banana trade

Sir: Tobias Schumacher (letter, 12 November) appears to be under the impression that Glenys Kinnock and the EU champion Caribbean bananas in order to spite the USA, the World Trade Organisation and the Latin American banana-producers.

Not so. The Lome agreement between the EU and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries long predates even the existence of the WTO, and the part of it by which the EU agrees to import bananas from the Caribbean component of the ACP is protectionism in its best sense: protecting countries which have no other source of income from total disaster.

Mr Schumacher, as a true Conservative, may not care if whole populations are reduced to penury in order that he may eat cheaper bananas, but I do. Keep up the good work, Glenys!

BILL LINTON

London N13