Brussels, 10/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - The banana trade agreements concluded at WTO headquarters on 15 December 2009 between the EU and the Latin American countries (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela) and between the EU and the United States, ending the planet's longest-running trade dispute (see EUROPE 10041), were officially signed in Geneva on 31 May. The general agreement on bananas concluded between the EU and the countries of Latin America provides for a gradual diminution in EU import duty on bananas, from €176 to €114 per tonne by 1 January 2017, with annual reductions able to be suspended for two years if there is no overall agreement in the Doha negotiations by the end of 2013. Under the bilateral agreements between the EU and Colombia and Peru (see EUROPE 10088) and the EU and the countries of Central America (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador), the EU has offered preferential customs duties on these countries' bananas, down to €75 per tonne by 2020. The Council decision of 10 May 2010 on the signing and provisional application of the two agreements is among the non-legislative acts in the Official Journal of the EU of 9 June. (E.H./transl.rt)