Brussels, 07/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on 20 and 21 November, the agriculture ministers of EU Member States will, for the first time, make an assessment of the proposal to reform the aid scheme for Community banana producers. Discussions held at the level of Special Agriculture Committee (SAC) experts, on Monday 6 November in particular, showed that the main Community banana producer countries - namely Spain, France and Portugal - support the European Commission's proposal to put an end to the current compensatory aid scheme in order to replace it with more suitable support adapted to the specific nature of each of the production regions more in line with the objectives of the reformed Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (EUROPE 9269). The Council is expected to reach an agreement on this text by the end of the year, namely during the meeting on 19, 20 and 21 December, to allow the reform to take effect on 1 January 2007.
During the Council on 20 November, Spanish, French and Portuguese ministers are expected to express agreement for the Commission proposal. We recall that, for the banana producers of very outlying areas such as the Canary Islands (Spain), Guadeloupe and Martinique (French West Indies), Madeira and Azores (Portugal), the Commission foresees transferring a financial allocation of €278.8 million per year to the POSEI programmes specially designed to assist remote EU regions in many agricultural sectors.
In production regions that are not on the periphery - such as continental Portugal, Greece and Cyprus - aid to the banana sector would be included in the single payment scheme in force in many other sectors. Greece and Cyprus are more reserved than other producer countries. Greece calls for the possibility to grant its producers aid while maintaining a link with the level of production and hopes a premium will cover a larger number of hectares. Cyprus also calls for greater subsidies for those operating in the sector. Furthermore, some non-producer countries (Sweden and the Netherlands), which mainly import “dollar” bananas produced in the countries of Latin America, consider the financial allocation to EU producers over-generous.
Import regime welcomed by ACP countries and EU producer countries
The agriculture ministers and representatives of EU producers (Spain, France, Cyprus, Greece and Portugal) and of ACP countries (Belize, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Santa Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname), meeting in Paris on 6 November 2006, noted that the customs duty of €176 per tonne applied by the EU since 1 January 2006 has not only ensured a constant flow from Latin America and the ACP countries but brought about a growth in European imports over the first six months of 2006. These countries felt that the transitional regime in force today meets market balance objectives. They called on the European Commission and the non-ACP banana exporting countries to pursue the dialogue already begun on the current base, with a view to reaching a concerted and final solution concerning the regime for importing bananas into the EU. According to Commission figures, Community banana imports have increased 9.5% since tariff protection only was established at borders, those from ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) increasing by 19.9% and those from the Latin American countries by 7%. The market share held by Community producers is currently around 16%. Producer countries of Latin America consider the import duty of €176 per tonne approved on 29 November by EU Member States too high (EUROPE 9078), and are currently negotiating with the EU to find a solution to this trading dispute. (lc)