Brussels, 05/05/2000 (Agence Europe) - Ecuador has not decided against implementing WTO approved sanctions against the EU, but at the same time suggests other ways of smoothing out its differences with the EU. For example, the losses suffered by this country in its banana trade with the EU could be compensated by European funding of a social nature or to achieve a restructuring of its banana sector, or else the "compensation" could be represented by a "debt reduction". As for the purely commercial aspect, Ecador could now accept the exclusively tariff regime, if other possibilities are not possible. This is how the results of the visit to Brussels by Ecuador's Foreign minister Heinz Moeller, and especially his meeting with European Commissioner Pascal Lamy may be summarised.
"We are going to ask authorisation from the WTO to implement the sanctions", said Mr. Moeller, but at the same time saying he was confident that, between now and then, he would receive the "green light" from the European Commission for technical assistance for banana regions and farms in his country, in view of contributing to their social development. Mr. Lamy promised to consider favourably the more detailed proposals that will reach him from Quito in the next ten days. "We are not busy bargaining an agreement, by which Ecuador would give up on its trade sanctions while we pay for technical assistance", the Commissioner nevertheless stressed, confirming that the EU intended complying with the WTO verdict as soon as possible. The notion of "compensation" raised the previous day by Mr. Moeller before the press, was never mentioned at the press conference at the end of his meeting with Mr. Lamy. The Ecuadorian envoy did, however, say that he would be turning to the Member States to seek, bilaterally, the annulment of a part of his country's external debt, having spoken of this with Javier Solana, responsible for Cfsp. The third part of his plan (allocate to Ecuadorian bananas the unused part of the tariff quota) was not raised either. Community sources hinted that this demand would again place the EU on the wrong side of WTO rules. Finally, Mr. Lamy said that the two sides did not have subbstantial differences of views on the two-stage reform proposed by the European Commission, which, for its part, is being "blocked by the United States". He hopes to settle this matter with the Americans as soon as possible.