LexisNexis(TM) Academic - Document

LexisNexis(TM) Academic - DocumentCopyright 2005 The Financial Times Limited
Financial Times (London, England)

March 31, 2005 Thursday
London Edition 1

SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Pg. 9

LENGTH: 304 words

HEADLINE: Banana producers go to WTO over EU dispute

BYLINE: By RAPHAEL MINDER and FRANCES WILLIAMS

DATELINE: BRUSSELS and GENEVA

BODY:


Ecuador and five other Latin American banana producers sought World Trade Organisation arbitration yesterday in their dispute with the European Union, raising the prospect of another long trade battle over the EU's banana import regime.

WTO banana arbitration could also have a wider impact on world trade negotiations.

Brussels recently accused the Latin Americans of deliberately delaying the arbitration request to drag out the procedure until a WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December.

Trade diplomats fear a repeat of events in Doha in 2001, when Latin American producers threatened to block an interim global trade deal until their demands were met on bananas.

A late deal providing for arbitration on the introduction of a new EU tariff-only banana import regime was eventually reached, satisfying Latin American banana producers unhappy with the EU's transitional arrangements. The EU, due to introduce a new banana import regime from 2006, has been caught between the competing wishes of Latin American nations and banana producers among the African and Caribbean (ACP) countries, which benefit from a preferential tariff treatment from the EU.

Latin American producers have been angered by an EU plan for a common tariff of Euros 230 (Pounds 158) per tonne, arguing the EU should switch to a zero-tariff policy, or at worst maintain a regime equivalent to the current tariff level of Euros 75. ACP countries want a tariff of Euros 275.

The arbitration takes the WTO into uncharted legal waters. Rules will have to be made, for instance, to allow the US and ACP countries to participate. Under the Doha accord, the arbitrator must be appointed within 30 days of the arbitration request and will then have 90 days to decide if the new EU tariff can guarantee "total market access" to Latin American banana exporters.

LOAD-DATE: March 31, 2005