The latest proposal from the European Commission for a €187 a tonne tariff on most favoured nation (MFN) suppliers of bananas from next year has been roundly criticized by all parties.

The Commission’s proposal also maintains an equivalent level of preference for ACP bananas through a tariff quota for 775,000 tonnes at zero duty.

Ecuador, Panama and Colombia - which were among the nine Latin American nations to go to the WTO for arbitration and press for a revision of the previous proposal - have all indicated their discontent and that further arbitration will be necessary.

Meanwhile, the commission is confident that the new tariff level and the new quota for ACP suppliers will pass muster with the WTO.

Mariann Fischer Boel, EU Commissioner for agriculture and rural development, said: “It was always our intention that the level of protection would not change under our new import regime. We have calculated the proposed tariff in a neutral and transparent manner.”

Meanwhile, Windwards Islands producers were due at St Lucia’s High Commission in London to meet with UK campaigners on Friday as they too are disappointed with the latest proposal. Renwick Rose, co-ordinator of the Association of Caribbean Farmers said the tariff would mean more problems for growers in the islands. “We are going to suffer,” he said. The delegation will be using Friday’s meeting to call on the UK to use its EU presidency to protect their industry. Speakers due at Friday’s meeting included a Caribbean growers’ representative and Edwin Laurent, special envoy of Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines to the EU for bananas.

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