BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):
THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has agreed to alter for the fourth time this year, its plans to introduce a single import tariff for bananas even as it braces itself for more criticisms from Caribbean and Latin American banana producers.
The new tariff system which the EU reached with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to end the so-called 'banana wars' in the 1990s, is due to go into effect from January 1, 2006.
But Caribbean banana-producing states have already objected to the EU's new tariff of US$206 (J$13, 390) a tonne agreed at a meeting in Brussels last weekend.
Trade officials say the decision by the EU ambassadors will be rubber-stamped by the EU ministers at their meeting later this week.
Last month, the EU said it was offering US$210 (J$13, 650) per tonne for bananas, down from the single tariff of US$226 (J$14,690) per tonne it had proposed for the fruit imported from countries, mainly in Latin America, that enjoy Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status.
The WTO has already ruled against the US$226 (J$14,690) per tonne and has proposed a duty-free quota of 775,000 tonnes for bananas from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states as from January 1, 2006.
Caribbean banana-producing countries have warned that there is need for a solution to the problem and that the consequences for them, particularly the Windward Islands - Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines - would be particularly serious since they rely on bananas for the major portion of their income and employment.
TARIFF LEVELS
The European Commission, hoping to resolve the issue before a December 13-18 meeting of the WTO in Hong Kong, has proposed three tariff levels over the past year.
But observers say the latest figure remains far higher than what Latin American countries want since they maintain that a higher tariff will jeopardise their banana producers, which export 3.4 million tonnes of the produce annually to the EU.
The Latin Americans want a tariff of US$87 (J$5,655), while Caribbean states want US$322 (J$20,930) in order to stop their rivals sending cheaper fruit into the market.
The Windward Islands special envoy on bananas, Edwin Laurent, said recently that despite the second WTO ruling, most suppliers in Latin America, the trade union movement and the importers in Europe, recognise that they can be hurt by the destabilisation of the market and loss of income, should Europe be flooded as a result of attempts to sell more bananas.
