Brussels, 01/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - On 30 November, Honduras and Panama filed a complaint with the WTO against the new customs duty imposed by the EU on banana imports from 1 January 2006. These two countries triggered expedited procedure so that, within 90 days, the WTO will verify whether the new customs duty is compatible with the earlier decisions taken in Geneva, whereby the two earlier EU proposals were considered too high (EUR 187 and 230). Other Latin American countries, including Ecuador, the leading world exporter, are expected to uphold the complaint filed. The matter may be discussed at the WTO Conference opening on 13 December in Hong Kong.
Latin-American banana-producing countries consider the import duty of 176 euros per tonne, approved on 29 November by EU Member States, as too high (EUROPE 9078). “This tariff is unacceptable and we shall use every legal means of the WTO to have our rights honoured”, Jorge Illingworth, Ecuadorian External Trade Minister, said in response. Anxious to safeguard their share of the European market, Latin American producers (Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela) had already managed, in August, to have WTO arbiters lower the tariff initially proposed by the EU (230 to 187 euros) before the EU decision to impose a lower duty of 176 euros.
The Latin American countries also challenge the derogation enjoyed by bananas produced by ACP Group countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific), which have a customs-free annual import quota of 775,000 tonnes. The quota, reserved for countries that have preferential access to the European market in the context of the Cotonou Agreements, “is not in line with a single tariff system”, Mr Illingworth said. The EU called on the WTO for extension of this dispensation. The countries of Latin American warn that they will never agree to granting this preferential treatment, knowing that the rules of the WTO ban such quotas. “All this is in breach of the agreement that we have with the EU and gives us the right to prevent legal claims before and during the Doha round of talks”, Mr Illingworth warned.
Costa Rica, which ranks second among banana exporting countries, has also foreseen bringing the matter of this dispute up in Hong Kong. The external trade minister of Costa Rica, José Manuel Gonzalez, also stressed his intention to continue discussions with the EU in order to gain a reduction of customs duties.