Fischler moves to end banana dispute

Date: 29/02/1996

By Michael Mann

AGRICULTURE Commissioner Franz Fischler has finally completed plans aimed at ending the deadlock over the future of the EU's controversial banana import system.

The proposals, which are due to be adopted by the Commission next week, will suggest awarding most of the proposed increase in the EU's import quota - to account for the last enlargement - to Latin American 'dollar bananas'.

This is certain to cause controversy in member states, including France and the UK, which have long-established ties with their former colonies in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and instinctively oppose any moves which could undermine their economies.

Although the volume of bananas imported from ACP nations would remain the same under the proposal, the share of the total quota for 'traditional' ACP producers would drop well below the current figure of 30&percent;.

While this was the main recommendation of a report last October on the functioning of the regime, officials in Directorate-General VI (agriculture) are aware that it will be much harder to push through concrete proposals to this effect.

“Although last year's report went through all right, you can never take anything for granted on bananas,” said a Commission official.

Fischler's plans also seek to add flexibility to the system, allowing importers to source their bananas from elsewhere if their usual suppliers are unable to provide sufficient quantities and 'non-traditional' ACP producers to export without licences.

This will build on two proposals which aimed to increase the overall 2.2-million tonne import tariff quota by 353,000 to cover the three new member states and simplify the system for awarding import licences.

Both draft regulations have remained deadlocked in the EU institutions for several months.

The issue has split the Union. On one side are those member states, including Germany, Austria, Denmark and Benelux countries which wish to import greater quantities of dollar bananas, with Germany leading calls for the import quota to be raised to three million tonnes. In the other camp are countries such as Spain, France, Portugal and the UK, who are striving to protect the economic interests of their former colonies and their own producers.

In last year's report, the Commission expressed its hope that the proposed changes would “overcome present problems and create a sustainable equilibrium between the different interests”. But given the amount of lobbying from all sides and the financial interests involved, nobody is taking anything for granted.

Meanwhile, the EU remains under severe pressure from the US, which on 7 February - along with Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador and Panama - asked for official consultations as a possible prelude to a dispute settlement panel in the World Trade Organisation for perceived damage to their banana trade.

Commission officials are particularly upset that Ecuador, the world's largest banana producer, has chosen to join the US. The Commission had been led to believe that problems with the South American country would be sorted out through bilateral contacts.

ACP producers have also raised the profile of their case, calling last week for a reduction in the import tariff quota to two million tonnes.