Press Release: Commission gives new impetus to resolve banana dispute

Following eight months of intensive discussions and despite the Commission's strenuous efforts to resolve the banana dispute, it has not proved possible to reach a compromise with third countries. Since the negotiations on maintaining a tariff quota regime on the basis of managing import licences on a historical basis have reached an impasse, and taking into consideration the discussions within Council and Parliament, the Commission proposed on 5 July 2000 the following strategy: It will continue to study a transitional system of tariff quotas, but at this stage on a 'first come, first served' basis for the three tariff quotas. The Commission retains its proposal for an automatic transition, on 1 January 2006, to a system based on tariffs only. In addition, the Commission asks the Council to give its authority to begin negotiations under Article XXVIII of the GATT with the relevant suppliers in order to implement a flat tariff system, in case no solution can be found on the tariff quota basis.

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