Brussels, 27/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Monday, the EU called for second arbitration of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in the dispute between a series of Latin American countries on banana imports into the Community market. Arbitration will this time be on the single customs tariff that the EU may apply to banana imports from 1 January 2006. A first arbitration of the WTO, early August, had concluded that the tariff of 230 euros a tonne initially proposed by the EU was too high to allow Latin American suppliers to keep their share of the Community market (see EUROPE 9003). On 12 September this year, the Commission suggested a new customs tariff of 187 euros per tonne (see EUROPE 9025), still considered too high by Latin American exporters (Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela). In recent weeks, the Commission has held a series of consultations with these countries (meetings on 5 august, 16 September and 21 September) with a view to reaching an agreement - but all in vain. “Despite our efforts, we were not able to come to an agreement with our partners. Nor did they present an alternative proposal of their own”, Agricultural Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel regrets in a press release. “This is why we are requesting a second round of arbitration today”, she states, hoping to reach a solution that is “acceptable to everyone”. The Commission, which affirms having well analysed the conclusions of the first WTO arbitration before making its new proposal of 187 euros/tonne, said it was confident the WTO would approve the new tariff. “We now need to bring an end to this dispute. For too many years, it has poisoned relations between the developing countries that sell bananas to Europe”, commented Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
WTO arbitrators will now have 30 days in which to take a stance on the new European proposal. The EU has undertaken to replace, by 1 January 2006 at the latest, its current regime for import quotas with a single tariff system. The EU today applies customs duties of 75 euros a tonne for banana imports from Latin America in a quota of 2.2 million tonnes and 680 euros/tonne for imports outside quotas.