By Martin Banks - 3rd February 2011
The EU needed to bring this ongoing trade dispute to an end
Robert Sturdy
MEPs says a parliamentary vote in the Brussels plenary will put an end to the long lasting "banana war."
They endorsed a deal which brings to an end a heated trade battle over bananas between the EU and Latin America.
Under the agreement on banana import tariffs, the EU will gradually end its preferential treatment of banana exporters in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
In exchange, Latin American countries have agreed to drop their complaints against the EU at the WTO and not to seek further tariff cuts in the Doha round talks.
The EU will gradually cut its import tariff on bananas from Latin America in eight stages, from €176 a tonne at the outset to €114 in 2017.
Bananas from the ACP countries will on the other hand continue to enter the EU market duty free.
The main ACP banana-producing countries are to receive up to €200m cash help from the EU budget to help them adjust to stiffer competition from Latin America.
The outcome of the vote on Thursday was welcomed by MEPs, including S&D vice-president Véronique de Keyser, who said, "I am glad that parliament used its new powers granted by the Lisbon treaty to establish some conditions to this deal reached by the commission."
Her S&D colleague Francesca Balzani, author of the parliamentary report on the issue, said, "It was about time to end the longest standing trade disputes in the world.
"For 20 years the EU has been accused of violating trade rules by importing bananas from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries without any levy while imposing heavy taxes on all other countries."
Meanwhile, British ECR deputy Robert Sturdy, his group's international trade spokesman, said the deal was not perfect but it did end the ongoing acrimony between two of the world's largest trading blocks, and it ensured a softer landing for the ACP.
He said, "The EU needed to bring this ongoing trade dispute to an end. It was souring a trade relationship with emergent Latin American economies that will help to define the 21st century."
