The European Union (EU) set here on Tuesday a new single tariff rate for banana imports, the European Commission (EC) announced in Brussels on Tuesday.

The new tariff regime will enter into force as from Jan. 1, 2006 and the normal tariff rate for banana imported from Most Favoured Nations (MFN) suppliers will be 176 euros per tonne.

An annual import quota of 775000 tonnes subject to a zero-duty rate will be opened for imports of bananas from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries under the ACP-EU partnership agreement, starting from 2006.

The above decision was made at the EU Competitiveness Council session by qualified majority: Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden voting against.

The EU's executive said in a press release that it would adopt "transitional measures" in order to facilitate the switchover from the existing to the new arrangements.

Earlier on Jan. 31 of this year, the EU notified the World Trade Organisation (WTO) its intention to replace its concessions on bananas, but a WTO arbitrator's award concluded last August that the tariff rate of 230 euros/tonne proposed by the EU was not consistent with WTO rules as it would not enable total market access for countries benefiting from MFN status.

The EU could not reach an agreement on the tariff rate with some countries, namely, Ecuador and Panama, having a principal supplying interest, and Colombia and Costa Rica, having a substantial supplier interest.

The EU revised the proposal in the light of the arbitrator's findings and in a second arbitration award, issued on Oct. 27, 2005,the WTO arbitrator concluded that the revised proposal for an MFN tariff rate of 187 euros/tonne failed to rectify the matter.

Source: Xinhua