Ecuador calls for action over EU tariff

Fruitnet.com
21 January 2009

Ecuador has lodged a fresh complaint with the WTO over the EU’s ‘failure to comply’ with a ruling over its banana tariff system

Ecuador has submitted a new complaint against the European Union (EU) to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for allegedly failing to comply with the terms of a ruling made in July last year over the Europe’s banana import tariff regime.

Under the terms of last year’s WTO ruling, the EU has been told to gradually reduce the current tariff level from €176 per tonne to €114 per tonne by 2016.

But, according to Ecuador, the EU has refused to apply a reduced tariff of €148, as required by the WTO decision which was due to come into force on 1 January 2008, arguing that the ruling was subject to the conclusion of the abandoned Doha trade talks.

According to news agency AFP, Ecuador has now demanded that the WTO’s ruling be put into immediate effect, accusing the EU of continuing to operate protective measures that favour subsidised producers in the Canary Islands, Guadaloupe and Martinique.

“Banana imports from former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific regions can enter the EU free of charge, while we are subject to a tariff of €176 per tonne, which has been condemned by the WTO,” an Ecuadorian official told AFP.

The WTO’s appeals panel had earlier rejected a claim by the EU against the ruling in December last year, finding that the current €176 tariff was “contrary to the promises made by the EU to the WTO”.