Brussels, 07/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The committee responsible for free trade at the European Parliament has approved measures for protecting bananas in the agreements with Central America, Columbia and Peru.
On Tuesday 6 November, the “international trade committee” at the European Parliament validated measures agreed with the Council to provide a safety net for European banana producers and to help them adapt to trade liberalisation planned in the free trade agreements between the EU and Central America (Costa Rica Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Salvador) and Columbia and Peru. These guarantees will need to be approved by Parliament as a whole and will allow the EU to increase its customs duties or refuse to reduce them, in the event of a significant hike in imports into the EU, which could damage the interests of its producers. With the aim of protecting producers in certain remote regions of the EU (the Canary Islands, Guadeloupe and Martinique) from a cut in banana import duties, special stabilisation mechanisms are planned, which will allow the European Commission to suspend preferential customs duties for a maximum of three months if banana imports are above activation thresholds.
The international trade committee also added specific provisions for following up implementation of these two operations, which will enable an eye to be kept on what progress has been achieved in the areas of human rights, social rights and respect for the environment, by providing civil society with a means of expressing its concerns.
On the 26-27 November, Parliament will provide a recommendation at the committee, with regard to it giving its agreement to the free trade agreement with Peru and Columbia. The association agreement with Central America has already obtained the go-ahead from the “foreign affairs” committee. Approval from Parliament on the two agreements will be submitted to a vote at the December plenary assembly. (EH/transl.fl)