Brussels, 24/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's new strategy in view of settling the dispute over bananas has led to a wave of alarmed protests not just from among the supplier countries but also within the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture. It was even no less than a wave of protests that followed the presentation made by European Commissioner Pascal Lamy, on 11 July. The plan tabling on a transitional quota solution and/or an exclusively tariff system, was "pulled to pieces" by many members of the Agriculture Committee, its press services reports. MEPs, indeed, fear that European and ACP producers, especially vulnerable faced with the competition of cheap bananas introduced on a wide scale and often marketed by powerful multinationals, should not be able to survive the transitional quota regime, allocated to the "first come". They are also opposed to the immediate opening of negotiations in view of establishing an exclusively tariff system, in case of deadlock in talks over the quota regime. According to the rapporteur, Michel Dary (F, PES), the large multinationals would surely win in the race for import licences. Mr. Dary accuses the Commission of having kept Parliament out of the game before redirecting its strategy and placing it on the Council's table, returning, moreover, to the exclusively tariff solution that the MEPs rejected in April last.
Isidoro Sanchez Garcia (Sp, ELDR), for his part, refers to "agricultural genocide" for producers of the Union's most outlying regions. Struan Stevenson (UK, EPP-ED) replied referring to the prospects of an even greater genocide in his Scottish constituency where the Cashmere industry and manufacturers of scented candles were today threatened by the "carousel" of American sanctions. Joined by his EPP-ED colleagues, Robert Sturdy (UK) and Ari Vatanen (Fin), he then applauded Mr. Lamy's efforts. But, according to the Parliamentary Committee's press services, the "northern alliance in favour of the Lamy project was fewer in number than the Spanish, French and German MEPs from the Socialist, GUE/NGL and Green/ELA groups, in favour of a quota regime.
Also present¸ French Agriculture Minister Jean Glavany, who currently chairs the Council, reiterated his support for the quota regime and said that a distribution mechanism for import licences of the "1st come 1st serve" type could pass the WTO test., which was a precondition for any reform. He compared the changes to the position on the American side to a game of poker, with Dole and Chiquita today divided by the benefit that one gains from the regime denounced by the other, whereas the two multinationals usually joined forces against the Union.
In his answer, Mr. Lamy nevertheless wanted to be reassuring. He assured his audience that he really did want to protect Community and ACP producers, saying that the problem was to determine what the best way of succeeding in that was, while ensuring that the new system was 100% admissible at the WTO. Having undertaken to present the results of the feasibility study of the "1st come 1st serve" between mid-September and mid-October, Mr. Lamy promised the MEPs that he would return before them after the summer break so as to sketch out compromise scenarios in the framework of informal talks. He thus responded to the invitation of the Chair of the Agricultural Committee, Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf (D, Green/ALE), who said he wanted to bring the positions of the EP and Commission on a problem with such implications closer together.