On Tuesday 13 December, negotiators from the Council and European Parliament reached a political agreement in trialogue, in Strasbourg, on the stabilisation mechanism for bananas that is provided for in the free trade agreement between the EU and Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and in the free trade agreement between the EU and Central America.
Led by rapporteur Marielle de Sarnez (ALDE, France), the Parliament's negotiators obtained four steps forward for the draft single regulation that will include Ecuador and that will merge the two current regulations governing the stabilisation mechanisms for bananas as part of the EU-Colombia and Peru agreement, and EU-Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama) agreement, a source close to the issue told EUROPE.
Firstly, the Commission will be obliged to react when the volume of banana imports into the EU from one of these nine countries reaches the annual threshold for triggering the mechanism. The Commission will either have to suspend the preferential duties applied to the bananas from the country concerned during the same year, for a maximum period of three months, or will have to determine that such a suspension is not appropriate. Under the terms of the current regulations, the Commission does not have this obligation.
Secondly, Parliament's negotiators obtained the inclusion of an early warning mechanism in the regulation. This will require the Commission to inform the Council and European Parliament when the maximum threshold for the volume of imports from one of the nine countries has reached 80%. It will also require the Commission to give a clear picture of the overall situation of import volumes in the EU from the nine Latin American countries.
Thirdly, the MEPs obtained clarification on the 10-year safeguard clause which, in the case of Ecuador, will have to be applied from the entry into force of Ecuador's accession to the multiparty agreement with Colombia and Peru.
Finally, the Parliament obtained the addition of a joint statement from the three institutions requiring an extension to a stabilisation mechanism to be negotiated after its expiry at the end of 2019. The Commission will make regular analyses of the EU's banana market and will have to take appropriate measures if a worsening of the market is noted.
In the EPP Group, Franck Proust from France hailed this agreement, saying that "it would have been politically unacceptable for the Parliament to ratify the EU-Ecuador trade agreement without the internal protection mechanisms for European producers being operational".
In the S&D Group, Eric Andrieu from France said that "this mechanism is still not enough to protect European producers effectively in the face of the 'banana dollar'".
The Parliament's international trade committee adopted its mandate back in September for negotiating in trialogue with the Council and Commission (see EUROPE 11633). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)