Ecuador has announced that it “will analyse” a new proposal from the European Union (EU) that is aimed at ending the long-running dispute between Europe and Latin America over the former’s banana tariff system.
In a statement, the Ecuadorian government said that it “would study” the offer that proposes reducing the tariff that currently “limits the access of Ecuadorian bananas” to the European market.
Ecuador said it intended analyse the proposal with leading members of the country’s banana sector before giving any response.
Ecuador’s minister for external relations and trade, Fander Falconí, told news agency EFE that the move was being viewed by the country as a “positive signal”, adding that the EU had fulfilled a promise to “sit down at the table to negotiate and present a proposal”.
However, Mr Falconí told Reuters that Ecuador would not drop its recent complaint to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as a result of the proposal.
'There is no way we will drop the complaints - our position has always been very consistent,' he said.
The offer, which would reportedly see the EU reduce the current tariff of €176 per tonne for Latin American bananas to €136 per tonne by 2011, was made following a visit by high-ranking Ecuadorian officials to Europe in late January.
It also follows a fresh complaint made by Ecuador to the WTO over the EU’s banana tariff regime. The present system imposes a €176 per tonne tariff on banana imports from outside Europe’s former African, Caribbean and Pacific colonies.
