TRADE: BANANA REPUBLICAN

WASHINGTON WAS SHUT down by snow, Congress and the White House were locked in budget combat, and U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor last week was talking about...bananas. Kantor announced a cease-fire in a yearlong imbroglio with banana producers Colombia and Costa Rica. In the past, he said, the two countries had joined with the 12-nation European Union to create trade policies that have hurt American commercial interests. Never mind that few bananas are grown in the U.S. or that only a handful of American jobs was at stake. Forget too that major U.S. producers Del Monte and Dole Foods want no...