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Latin Americans, EU strike historic deal on banana trade
AFP - Wednesday, December 16
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Latin American nations and the European Union on Tuesday struck a historic deal aimed at ending a long-running dispute over banana tariffs, giving a potential boost to global trade talks.
GENEVA (AFP) - – Latin American nations and the European Union on Tuesday struck a historic deal aimed at ending a long-running dispute over banana tariffs, giving a potential boost to global trade talks.
"Ecuador, the prime exporter of bananas to the European Union and the world, initialled today the so-called Geneva Agreement on Banana Trade with the European Union," the Ecuadorian delegation to the World Trade Organisation said in a statement.
It added that it hoped the deal, worked out after "all Latin American nations" were involved in the talks, should "end decades of complaints and legal disputes" at the WTO.
The EU and World Trade Organisation also hailed the agreement to settle a dispute that has often soured the climate between key members in the WTO for 16 years.
"I am delighted that we have finally found a way to solve the bananas dispute with a compromise that works for all sides. This is an important boost for the multilateral (trading) system," said EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso.
WTO chief Pascal Lamy suggested the "Geneva Agreement on Banana Trade" could boost ailing global free trade talks launched eight years ago.
"I welcome the news that a comprehensive agreement on bananas has now been reached," Lamy said in a statement.
"This has been one of the most technically complex, politically sensitive and commercially meaningful legal disputes ever brought to the WTO.
"It has also been one of the longest running 'sagas' in the history of the post-World War II multilateral trading system," he said.
"This proves that there is no trade issue which lies beyond the reach of WTO members. I hope that the same spirit of pragmatism, creativity and diplomacy will re-invigorate the Doha Round negotiations," Lamy added.
Ecuador said that full signature would take place about four months after the document was initialled on Tuesday, once all sides complete their respective legislative processes.
The dispute over banana trade is the longest-running in the WTO, brought about by the EU's import regime introduced in July 1993.
While bananas shipped from Latin American countries are subject to import taxes, those from mostly poor former European colonies in the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) region enter the bloc tariff-free.
However, the banana dispute as a whole can only be fully resolved if the EU also secures an accord with its ACP partners on compensation to help them cope with the tariff changes.
US support for the overall settlement is also needed.
The United States does not export bananas to the European Union but three of the largest producers with plantations in Latin America are US-based multinationals -- Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole.
The deal envisages a first cut in EU duties on banana imports from 176 euros (255 dollars) a tonne to 148 euros and then a series of annual cuts down to 114 euros by 2017, according to text of the accord distributed by Ecuador.
Some of the planned tariff cuts after 2013 are, however, dependent on a wider deal in the deadlocked Doha round of global trade negotiations.
Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela were the other Latin American countries involved in the talks.
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