Strasbourg, 13/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Parliament adopted the report by Michel Dary on the arrangements for sharing out banana customs quotas, while taking into account the agreement reached in April 2001 with the United States in this connection. The EP amended a technical proposal by the Commission (which essentially consists in transferring, from 1 January 2002, 100,000 tonnes of tariff quota C reserved for imports from the ACP countries, to quota B for third country bananas) calling for the introduction of accompanying measures and allowing viability and integration to be maintained in a liberalised market of ACP producers. The EP thus hopes that provisions will be set out to allow ACP producers to take advantage of the proposed transitional system, until the introduction of the single banana duty in 2006.
The Parliament therefore proposes: - that the C quota should be increased proportionally to the B quota to take into account large volumes of ACP banana exports towards candidate countries; - that the Commission should present a report on the way the system works, its impact on trade with the ACP countries and allowing an assessment in full knowledge of the facts of the single customs duty to be negotiated; - simplification of procedures and accelerated payment of funds set out in the context of the technical and financial assistance provision in favour of traditional ACP banana producers; - that, in parallel to the implementation of the amended regulation of accompanying measures such as a system for hurricane compensation extended to ACP producers, there should be aid to the marketing of bananas produced in the very outlying regions of the EU and the possibility for the Member States to limit the surface areas eligible for compensatory aid.
We specify that this proposal concerns one of the two chapters of the transatlantic agreement, which provides for enlarging access to the Community market of third country bananas, while reserving a specific quota to bananas from ACP countries. The first part of the agreement, which took effect on 1 July, covers the allocation of import certificates: 2.2 million tonnes for the tariff quota A, 353,000 for the additional B quota, and an autonomous C quota of 850,000 tonnes at the customs duty rate of 300 euros per tonne with a zero duty for imports from ACP countries.