BANANAS: EU PLANS TO OPEN WTO TALKS ON TARIFF-ONLY BANANA IMPORTS

摘要

The EU plans to open World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations on a tariff-only system for banana imports, the European Commission said on June 2. As soon as the Council of Ministers agrees, the Commission will negotiate an import tariff for bananaswith producer countries in Latin America. It said it would try to keep trade preferences for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and would safeguard EU banana producers. The EU promised to introduce a tariff-only regime before January 1,2006as part of the settlement which ended the long WTO dispute between the EU, Ecuador and the United States. The Colombian Ambassador to the EU, Nicolas Echavarria Mesa, said Latin American leaders would meet this Summer to agree a common position before the EU starts bilateral talks.