Brussels / Quito, 17/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Ecuadorian authorities reacted strongly to the announcement of an agreement of principle between Brussels and Washington putting an end to the banana dispute "behind Ecuador's back", while providing Europeans with an "opportunity to correct" their fire (see EUROPE of 12 April, p.7). In this way, the Union may still consult Quito (Ed. Which it has done but a posteriori and informally) with a view to correcting aspects of the agreement that flagrantly violate the express and specific WTO norms or which plunge the nth time into a procedure on "this symbolic case of trade disputes", stresses Ambassador Alfredo Pinoargote in a letter to Commissioners Lamy and Fischler dated Tuesday.
Ambassador Pinoargote writes to Mr Lamy and Mr Fischler saying that, on instructions from the President of the Republic, Dr Gustavo Noboa Bejarano, he wishes to express the disagreement of the Ecuadorian Government following the announcement made that the banana war is over by virtue of the agreement reached with the US Trade Representative. He recalled that Ecuador is the other complainant party winning in the GATT and GATS in this affair, so that, "to be legally valid, any agreement must have Quito's approval". He insisted that the banana war cannot come to an end by simply satisfying the interests of a country that does not even produce bananas. The Ecuadorian Government, which had backed the "first come first serve" type of solution recommended at the beginning of the year by the Union, "demands immediate rectification" of the transatlantic agreement, which is founded on historic references for the distribution of import licenses. It requests to be able to take part in all negotiation processes that may reach a definitive agreement, compatible with WTO norms. Quito will soon be requesting consultation with the Union but, if no satisfactory solution is found, consultation will continue under the auspices of the WTO, thus marking the beginning of a new multilateral dispute settlement procedure in the banana affair. Ecuador will not have any other alternative than that of immediately requesting consultation at the WTO, as soon as the Commission's settlement has been published in the Official Journal, thus modifying the common regime along the lines agreed with Washington as, in its present state, the bilateral agreement is not compatible with the spirit and the letter of the multilateral trade system.
This official reaction is inspired by the very first comments made by the President and the Foreign Affairs Minister, who showed a clearly more hostile stance than that taken by the Agriculture Minister several hours earlier. According to urgent messages from Quito, the Agriculture Minister Galo Plaza, whom Mr Lamy and Mr Fischler had informed of the White House approval from the very beginning, reportedly left open the possibility of accepting this agreement by stating that, at any rate, the historic solution agreed seemed to him more advantageous for his country than the mechanism of quotas/supplier country sanctioned by the WTO. He showed he was willing to examine it in greater detail.