Bananas spark EU-ACP deal row

EU ministers are expected to clash on over setting a binding deadline for ACP countries to open their markets completely to EU exporters.

At the heart of the dispute are 900,000 tonnes of bananas.

The Spanish government fears its banana farms in the Canary Islands will not survive competition with the lower priced ACP bananas and has reportedly recruited French, Portuguese and Polish support to block the move during a meeting of ministers on Monday in Brussels.

Madrid is linking market access to bananas with other products.

A Madrid diplomat asked the Spanish press “how can (EU) member states talk against (opening the market to) rice and sugar and then accuse us of protectionism on bananas?”

The UK, the Netherlands and most Scandinavian countries are however backing the European commission against Madrid's demands.

“We’ve made our market access offer and it has been agreed by member states”, a spokesman for the EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson said.

The EU produces about 16 per cent of the bananas it consumes, importing most of the rest from the ACP countries and Latin America.

Ministers are to discuss a new economic and partnership agreement aimed at replace the existing Cotonou agreement with the 71-country bloc that expires in December.

Meanwhile Latin American banana producers have challenged the EU’s preferential trade arrangement at the WTO.

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