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BANANA WARS MEAN RECORD-BREAKER IN GENEVA!
(Banana Trade News Bulletin, July 1997)
Widely leaked copies of the Interim Report from the WTO banana dispute Panel in Geneva reached the US-based banana companies, the North American press and European NGO's as early as March 19 The final 380-page report was formally released to the governmental parties in dispute on May 11. This followed a record-breaking dispute settlement procedure: the most WT0 members involved in a dispute so far, the most complex dispute, as well as the longest and most controversial panel hearings. Additionally, EU-based trade lawyers, acting on behalf of legitimately involved 'third parties' (the governments of St. Lucia and St. Vincent), had been barred early on in the proceedings (See Bulletin No.8).
In its findings and ruling on the EU's banana regime, the WTO's dispute Panel has found fault with the EU's tariff quota regime for negotiating and allocating quotas in a discriminatory way, with its licensing procedures, and for the violation of the EU's commitment under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Services (GATS) to provide full national treatment to cross-border supply. The Panel has not condemned (apparently) the tariff quota. It is set at 2.2 million tonnes though currently "dollarbanana" imports are allowed in by the Commission to 2.553 million tonnes annually. The panellists have accepted the validity of the Lomé preferences safeguarded by the waiver but clearly not the intent of Protocol V, which is to guarantee the traditional market advantages of ACP suppliers. The Panel has also clearly opposed the allocation of quotas to ACP suppliers in excess of their highest exports before 1991, and the allocation of 30% of the licences to category "B" operators. Finally, though apparently conceding the legality of the Banana Framework Agreement, the Panel has condemned all of the measures taken to implement it, and rejected the rules for the granting of hurricane licences, which provide immediate income to the afflicted producers from the disposal of the "dollar" licences.
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