Brussels, 05/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission on Friday adopted a regulation which lays down the specific measures for banana imports following enlargement, and published a notice asking all EU operators in the banana sector to make themselves known. This procedure is necessary before setting the banana import quotas for the ten new member states (see EUROPE of 4 March 2004, p.11).
The Commission announced that the additional volume of bananas for the new member states of the EU, which will be based on historical imports, was currently under discussion with the Community's trading partners in the WTO. The Commission therefore first wants to draw up a list of operators in the Union (both EU15 and EU25) who fulfil the conditions to be considered either as traditional or non-traditional operators. The current system for granting import licences, which will continue to be applied after enlargement, is based on historical references (83% of the quotas go to 'traditional importers'). However, to ensure that non-traditional operators can continue to sell bananas, 17% of the quantities are reserved for operators who do not have a sufficient historic reference.
Commissioner Franz Fischler said that the EU would safeguard the interests of Community producers and maintain preferential access for ACP states. He also said that the EU's commitments in the WTO would be "entirely honoured".