The United States will ask for a legal review of the European Union's import rules for bananas at a meeting of the World Trade Organisation's dispute body next week.

The request scheduled for July 12 signals the widening of one of the WTO's longest-running disputes, which has pitted banana exporters from the U.S. and Latin American countries against the EU and producers from African and Caribbean countries - mainly former British and French colonies.

United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced the move last week.

No bananas are grown in the U.S. but Amercian-owned companies have farms in the hemisphere.

The date for the special session of the dispute settlement body was made public by the WTO on Monday.

Tariffs

The global trade body has consistently ruled against how the EU sets tariffs for the fruit, forcing the 27-nation bloc to overhaul a system that grants preferential conditions for African and Caribbean countries.

Latin American producers and banana companies based in the United States have long complained about the preferences. The U.S., in 1999, and Ecuador a year later both won the right to impose trade sanctions on European goods after the WTO found the EU's rules to be illegal.

Washington is seeking the establishment of a compliance panel to rule on whether Brussels has implemented the WTO ruling. The EU can only block a panel's establishment once.

The rules are already being investigated because of a similar request by Ecuador in March. Colombia has since initiated its own complaint against Brussels' tariffs.

A deal in 2001 gave the EU five years to comply with WTO rulings. Brussels says a new banana tariff established last year - €176 (US$234) per tonne - has brought its banana rules into compliance.

The 11-year dispute has spawned a series of cases in the WTO as lawyers continue to wrangle over procedural intricacies and legislation that has previously never been tested.

- AP