Has the European Union gone bananas?
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Speaks David Campbell Bannerman, in European Parliament, February 2nd 2011:
Transcript:
Madam President,
This banana is the stuff of war, an EU inspired trade war with America that has lasted sixteen years and has now been lost spectacularly. The EU is now being fined nearly two hundred million dollars by the World Trade Organization, and is forced to drop its illegal tariffs. All because of the protectionism that lies at the heart of the EU, in this case to protect French colonies. And now I say that this very banana which I bought today in the European Parliament supermarket is illegal. It does not conform to EU rules in terms of the length, the width, and the straightness of bananas. What is going on?
One has to ask with such balmy protectionism and such silly rules as this, is the European Union crazy or has it merely gone bananas?