ACP bananas: Brussels clutches blanket quota
The ACP-EU agreements on bananas have been under threat from the World Trade Organisation, following pressure from the United States, and producers represented by three major multinational corporations and four Latin American countries (see Spore 74). Meeting in Brussels on 28 October 1998, the Agriculture ministers of the European Union decided to hold on to their commitments. The quota for ACP bananas entering the European market duty-free was upheld. This ended the system of quotas by country, and ratified the position taken at the inter-parliamentary meeting of ACP States in March 1998 in Mauritius and scheduled to enter into effect on 1 January 1999. There will be no specific quota for bananas from Cameroon or Côte d'Ivoire, but an overall quota for all ACP countries with a ceiling at about 860,000 tonnes a year. This decision was met with delight by African producers, and with strong protests from the Caribbean producers, even though they had signed the Mauritius agreement. The ACP-EU Lomé Convention of 1990 runs out in February 2000, and if the existing benefits for ACP countries are not renewed, they could be frozen. In any case, negotiations for a new Convention have been started by the European Union. We have not heard the last of the banana case... http://www.cybernum.com/messager/260698/w.htm
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| Format: | News Item biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
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Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
1999
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/48316 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99636 |
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