Brussels, 15/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 14 November, the "bananas" management committee gave its agreement to the opening, in 2007, of an import tariff quota at zero duty of 775,000 tonnes of bananas originating from ACP countries. As per last year, the EU is thus observing its commitments towards the ACP countries since a solely tariff-based import regime entered into force on 1 January 2006 (EUROPE 9123). 81% of this quota, or 628,152 tonnes, will be allocated (in six equal segments of 104,692 tonnes) under the so-called "first come, first served" rule. This provides for the tariff quota to be used in the chronological order of the acceptance dates of the declarations for release for free circulation. In order to ensure the continuity of trade with the ACP countries, and thus adequate supplies for the Community market (whilst avoiding any distortions in trade flows), the EU is to allocate the remaining 19%, or 146,848 tonnes, to operators having imported bananas from ACP countries into the Community in 2006. The management of this proportion of the tariff quota will be done by means of import certificates issued to each operator in line with the quantities released for free circulation in 2006. It is worth noting that the new solely tariff-based regime set in place by the EU early in 2006 for banana imports also plans to keep in place a free-access quota of 775,000 tonnes in favour of ACP country suppliers. (lc)