CASTRIES, St Lucia (AP) - Caribbean banana and sugar growers will stage a street march in St Lucia to protest recent trade rulings that they fear will hurt exports of the vital crops, organisers said yesterday. Several thousand farmers from throughout the region were expected for today's march, dubbed "Operation Get Up, Stand Up" after the famous protest anthem by reggae legend Bob Marley, said organiser Flavia Cherry. "This is a flesh-and-blood issue and the lives of our farmers are at stake," said Renwick Rose, coordinator of the St Vincent-based Windward Islands Farmers Association. Farmers are angry over a recent World Trade Organization ruling against a new EU tariff on imported bananas that they say will flood the vital European market with cheaper bananas from Latin America. They're also upset about an EU plan to sharply cut subsidies for Caribbean sugar growers, a move prompted by another WTO ruling. The ruling a the banana tariff was the latest blow for St Lucia, where more than 8,000 banana farmers have quit the industry in the last decade because of rising production costs and new production demands from Europe. The protest will coincide with a meeting in the capital of Castries between Caribbean and EU officials to discuss a new bilateral trade pact. The meeting will be attended by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com