Paying the Price: The Banana Trade in Focus (Watching the Caribbean: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Caribbean Cinema, Part I) (Resena de Pelicula‪)‬

Banana Split. Directed by Ron Harpelle and Kelly Saxberg, Shebandowan Films, 2002. DVD. 46 minutes. Banana Split is a Canadian produced award-winning documentary lasting 46 minutes, which provides an overview of the historical, social, economic, scientific and environmental aspects of banana production. In recent years most attention has been focused on the long running banana trade war between the United States (U.S.) and Latin American governments on the one hand and the European Union (E.U.) on the other. The result of which has been the abandonment of preferences for African, Caribbean and Pacific imports into the E.U., and the end of a large-scale banana export industry in the Caribbean. While the dispute has been very important in determining international trade policy as well as the economic profile of the Caribbean, there are other contentious issues related to the banana, and this film is useful in focusing attention on these.