UN General Assembly
1999

contention of the discrimination directed at the banana regime operating under the Lomé Treaty, there is an urgent need for the World Trade Organization to apply special and differential treatment to small island developing States as it does to least developed countries. If markets in Europe are eroded for small States, those States will deteriorate economically, socially and politically to the point of placing yet another burden on the international community. This deduction is made from an analysis of the dispute tribunal's ruling, which suggests that the entire quota system for imports by the European Union from the African-Caribbean-Pacific countries for all products is now under threat. In the third place, we would like to reiterate the call made for a disaster fund in 1995 by our Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Lester Bird. He made that call following the devastation of hurricane Luis, which wiped out one year of Antigua and Barbuda's gross domestic product in 36 perilous hours. Whereas the existing mechanisms address the purpose of relieving immediate suffering and agony, they are woefully insufficient for