The European Union was hit by a second ruling against its banana import regime yesterday when the World Trade Organisation backed a complaint brought by the US.
The WTO compliance panel which ruled on the case said the EU had failed to implement previous rulings in the case that had harmed US trade rights as some of the biggest corporations exporting from Latin America - Dole, Del Monte and Chiquita - are US-based. The implication of this ruling, which comes hot on the heels of a similar decision last month by the WTO in favour of Ecuador, is that the US could be entitled to demand sanctions against Brussels.
The US trade representative Susan Schwab said in a statement: “I am very pleased with the WTO decision. We regret that the EU has failed to comply with previous panel findings on bananas and look forward to finally seeing this issue resolved.”
The EU has reportedly insisted on the irrelevance of the ruling as the preferential banana import access granted to former European colonies in the African-Caribbean-Pacific group of countries was changed at the beginning of 2008 with the introduction of Economic Partnership Agreements.
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