EU offer on bananas fails to pacify US

Date: 26/11/1998

By Simon Taylor

THE US looks set to press ahead with plans to draw up a short list of EU exports to be hit with sanctions, despite fresh efforts by the Union to resolve the ongoing dispute over its banana regime through the World Trade Organisation.

EU trade officials launched a challenge against the threatened US sanctions in the WTO yesterday (25 November) after Washington failed to respond to the Union's latest attempt to defuse transatlantic tension over the issue.

Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan wrote to his American counterpart Charlene Barshefsky at the start of the week, offering to cooperate on getting a fast-track ruling from the world trade body on the Union's new banana import rules, provided the US dropped its sanctions threat until after the WTO had delivered its assessment.

"I am prepared to work with you and the panellists straight away to agree on the quickest possible time frame and to give a strong assurance that we will do nothing to delay it," he stated.

But US officials dismissed Brittan's offer, describing it as a "smokescreen". They insisted that Washington was fully justified in imposing sanctions under WTO rules and rejected EU claims that the sanctions amounted to unilateral action.

Earlier this month, the US administration published a provisional list of European products worth just under 1.5 billion ecu which could face punitive sanctions if the Union refused to back down.

The continuing impasse makes it likely that Washington will carry out its threat to publish a second, final version in the middle of next month, listing the EU products which could be hit with duties next year if the WTO rules that the Union has not made enough changes to its banana regime to bring it into line with trade rules.

See Section 13.4.i for main set of references on the banana dispute.