Brussels, 29/11/2005 (Agence Europe) -29 November, the Council of the EU adopted without debate the regulation setting customs duty to be applied from imports of bananas from Latin America as of 1 January 2006 at a level of 176 EUR per tonne. The EU is also setting in place an autonomous tariff quota of 775,000 tonnes a year, at a rate of zero duty, which is open to banana imports from the ACP countries. The regulation was adopted by qualified majority, without the agreement of seven States which are big importers of "dollar bananas" from Latin America, as they feel that this tariff is too high (Germany, Sweden, Poland, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia and Malta). The adoption of this regulation will allow the EU to keep its promises: in 2001, it undertook, with Ecuador and the United States, to replace its challenged regime of import quotas for bananas with a solely tariff-based system. The two previous proposals (187 and 230 EUR) were, according to an arbitration panel and the WTO, too high to ensure that the Latin American exporters (Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela) would be able to keep their share of the European market. After a series of fruitless discussions with the Latin American countries, which are militating in favour of a rate of customs duty close to the current situation (75 EUR/t), the Commission called upon the Member States to agree to its third and final proposal (176 EUR/t). This agreement was obtained with difficulty (EUROPE 9074 9071). It was not until 25 November that the Committee of Permanent Representatives reported the existence of a qualified majority on the dossier.
According to the Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, this level of customs duty "will fully maintain market access for the Latin American producers, without neglecting the interests of the EU and ACP producers". She indicated that the EU's door "remains open" to further negotiations with the Latin American countries in question. "The Commission will keep an attentive eye on the repercussions of this decision on prices and trade flows", pledged Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, for his part.