The European Union formally proposed its new tariff-only banana import regime to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) this week.
In making the proposal for the new regime to be introduced from January 1, 2006, EU farm commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: “The system will safeguard the sometimes conflicting interests of our consumers, producers and trading partners.”
The proposal is for a much higher e230 a tonne tariff on most-favoured-nation suppliers - mainly from Latin America - doing away with the existing system which is based on tariff quotas and is much lower at e75 a tonne.
The notification to the WTO is under the terms agreed at the Doha WTO meeting in 2001 and provides for the possibility of arbitration on the part of producers over the level of tariff. “The EU banana-import regime is changing, but the protection is not increasing,” said Fischer Boel.
But Latin American presidents and high-ranking officials agreed at a banana summit last week to reject the EU proposal although they could not agree a new tariff level. Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua signed the declaration claiming a higher tariff will increase levels of poverty. The new regime risks plunging millions into misery and desperation across South and Central America, they said.
Meanwhile, Caribbean and African suppliers to the EU are disappointed the tariff is not higher.
The Jamaican press reported the banana industry in the country does not share the views of farm minister Roger Clarke that it could “live with” a tariff of e230.
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