Banana import licences will be abolished in 2012, the EU management committee for the common organisation of agricultural markets has announced.
Trade bodies had been seeking its repeal for several months as the licences became redundant after the move of the import regime to a tariff-only system in 2008.
Licences were largely viewed by the trade as an unnecessary burden and during the 1990s their fiercest critics claimed that trade in the licences overshadowed the banana trade itself.
The decision to abolish the banana import license system is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2012, pending publication in the EU Official Journal.
The EU imports some 4.8 million tonnes of bananas from third countries annually.
Philippe Binard, delegate general at European trade organisation Freshfel said: “The banana import licenses have currently only a purely monitoring role, are administratively burdensome and costly for operators - capital requirements of €10m at EU-level and associated collateral costs.
"Moreover they have no added value as previous preferential quota no longer exist and reliable information on volumes of banana imports can be gathered today through existing EU databases such as Eurostat. Freshfel therefore welcomes this step which will bring benefits to banana importers as well as national administrations.”
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