Blackmailing the Ecuadorian poor

dontcha just love the way this story makes it sound like poor dole, a notorious, 100-year plus exploiter of the populations of poor countries, just couldn't seem to make a profit because ecuador has no free trade agreement with the u.s...?

For weeks, the rumor had circulated through the greenhouses and fields of the flower export business here: The American owner was going to abandon the country.

Then the rumor became reality. The owner, a division of the giant Dole Food Co., announced this month that it would close this farm and another in a nearby town, wiping out 850 jobs, as it sought to streamline operations.

"They said it was not a bankruptcy, but that business was not good," said Teresa Ayala, 36, a mother of three who worked for seven years at Middle of the World Flowers. "Our supervisor said we paid higher tariffs."

The closing, Dole executives said, was based on a number of factors, including rising costs and stiff competition from other overseas growers. But those costs were clearly made more onerous by the fact that Ecuador had no trade agreement with Washington.

so, what's a poor country like ecuador supposed to do...?

"This is the first signal, the alarm bell, that gives us an idea of what would happen in this sector and others in the country if we don't move forward to make ourselves more competitive," said Ignacio Pérez, executive director of Ecuador's Association of Flower Producers and Exporters, a Quito-based group representing 185 growers.

and, what, pray tell, mr. pérez, does making ecuador "more competitive" look like...? possibly, something like this...?

Workers here are now wondering if a trade deal would not have served them better.

"Losing this is hard, real hard," said Onorio Nicolalde, 38, as he left the farm with a gaggle of other workers. "I don't know where I'll find work."

"I cried because my youth ended there," said Rosa Caza, 41, who said she started working at the farm 18 years ago, long before Dole took over.

"It would have been better if they had signed a free-trade deal," she said. "Maybe they wouldn't have closed."

that's right... it's all about money - u.s. money - and the poor be damned... and, if they don't like the way we want them to do business, we'll just freeze 'em out and they can go back to being even poorer... is the u.s. a great country or what...?

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