Latin american banana-producing countries are stepping up pressure on the European Union by joining with the US to try and broker a solution to a dispute over the EU’s import regime.
At a meeting held late last week in Panama, trade representatives from all the major Latin banana sources - bar Costa Rica - and the US met for the first time in a year and a half.
Honduras trade minister Jorge Rosa was joined by vice-trade ministers Eduardo Muñoz and Verónica Rojas, from Colombia and Nicaragua respectively, as well as high-ranking officials from Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, Guatemala and the US.
They all committed to “advancing the protection of the interest of the banana-producing sectors”, which the group said, in a joint statement, are directly affected by the preferential margin the EU affords to producers from other regions.
Leroy Sheffer, chief trade negotiator for Panama, said the meeting was very successful.
“The first step to take is to communicate to the European authorities the will of the Latin American region to find a satisfactory solution to the dispute within the framework of the principles of the World Trade Organisation (WTO),” he said.
Sheffer added that bilateral action by countries such as Ecuador and Panama will continue. “Any effort that we make will not diminish the capacity we have to advance the litigation that has already been initiated within the WTO framework,” said Sheffer.
The countries want a reduction of the €176 (£122)-a-tonne tariff that has been in force since January 2006, and which they say is discriminatory and puts the jobs of Latin American workers at risk.
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