Brussels, 29/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - At the Joint ACP-EU Council of Ministers, co-chaired by William Haomae, Solomon Islands Foreign Affairs and External Trade Minister, and Helena Bambasova, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic, ACP countries have stated clearly their fears of being subject to the full force of competition from Latin American bananas on the European Union and called for fair compensation from the EU for losses.
While understanding that the European Union has no other choice than to conclude an agreement that meets with WTO rules with Latin American producers, the ACP countries repeated their call for €500 million to compensate the reduction in their exports to the EU, which the phased reduction in import taxes of €176 per tonne today to €114 per tonne in 2019 for their Central American competitors would necessarily bring. The EU considers that this sum is unrealistic (relatively recently, the ACP called for €276 million), but has said that it would be prepared to slightly increase its initial offer from €100 million to €110 million. The ACP countries are also unhappy that bananas have now been taken out of the WTO's Doha Round for development negotiations and will be negotiated separately.
In a statement on bananas, adopted by the ACP Council and read by Surinam Foreign Minister Lygio Kraag-Keteldijk to the joint ACP-EU meeting, the ACP countries feel that, despite the deadlock in the WTO negotiations, the reduction in customs duties proposed by the European Commission on 12 March would be an “early harvest” for Latin American producers. They say that the proposal would have disastrous for ACP banana producers, for whom a longer period for the phasing out of preferences was of vital importance. “It is pointless to enter into any agreement in anticipation of a Doha settlement,” the statement says. In the event of an anticipatory agreement being reached “an envelope of close to €500 million would be required to avoid social turmoil and political instability in the ACP countries concerned, and foreseeable spill-over effects to other countries, including overseas,” the ACP states say.
According to a European source, the European Commission pointed out that it was in everyone's interest to swiftly resolve this 20-year old dispute and that immediate, independent Doha Round talks, the outcome of which has not been decided, would provide “greater control” over the situation. The EU also told ministers that the sum of “€110 plus” as a compensation measure, would be subject to the co-decision procedure and would be delivered as a package and not as continuous assistance. The ACP banana producers concerned are Belize, Cameroon, Cap Verde, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Côte d'Ivoire, Jamaica, Madagascar, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Somalia and Surinam. (A.N./transl.rt)