The United States has asked the World Trade Organisation to investigate what the US alleges is the European Union's failure to comply with previous rulings against its banana import regime.
US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in a statement: "We share the concern of Ecuador and several other Latin American banana exporters regarding the continued existence of a discriminatory tariff rate quota in the EU's current banana regime.
"We are hopeful that this formal step will facilitate the removal of that discrimination."
The US concern emanates from "the EU's apparent failure to implement the WTO rulings in a 1996 proceeding initiated by Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the US,” said Schwab’s office.
"That ruling said the EU's banana regime discriminates against bananas originating in Latin American countries and against distributors of such bananas, including several U.S. companies."
The dispute dates back to 1993, when the EU implemented a single banana import regime as part of its effort to eliminate trade barriers between member states.
The US only backed down on its desire to impose retaliatory tariffs when Brussels moved to a tariff-only import regime for bananas last year.
But the US still believes the playing field is not level. "We regret that efforts between the EU and its Latin American trading partners to negotiate a solution to the banana issue have not been successful," Schwab said.
