Internationale druk op EP om akkoord te gaan met regeling over handel bananen (en)

Parliament should help to put an end to the world's longest-running trade dispute, by giving its final consent to the 15 December 2009 Geneva deal on banana trade tariffs, even though this deal could not fully reconcile all parties' legitimate interests, the International Trade Committee recommended on Monday.

Under the 2009 deal on banana import tariffs, the EU will gradually end its preferential treatment of banana exporters in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. In exchange, Latin American countries agreed to drop their complaints against the EU at the WTO i and not to seek further tariff cuts in the Doha round talks.

The deal will see the EU gradually cut its import tariff on bananas from Latin America in eight stages, from €176 a tonne at the outset to €114 in 2017. Bananas from the ACP countries will on the other hand continue to enter the EU market duty free. Furthermore, the main ACP banana-producing countries are to receive help from the EU budget (up to €200 million), to help them adjust to stiffer competition from Latin America.

The Geneva agreement is expected to bring benefits also to European consumers who should find cheaper bananas in stores thanks to greater competition between producers.

What happens to EU banana producers?

Special financial provisions are also foreseen for the EU's outermost banana-producing regions. These provisions must be now spelled out in a different EU regulation, with Parliament as co-legislator. Rapporteur Francesca Balzani (S&D, IT), considers that these additional financial provisions, proposed by the Commission in September 2010, do not offer sufficient support to EU producers. Parliament's Agriculture Committee is now studying the proposed support scheme for certain agricultural products in the outermost regions (the "POSEI" programme), the rapporteur for which will be Gabriel Mato (EPP, ES).

Parliament's concerns

In committee, members of both the GUE and Greens/EFA groups voted against granting Parliament's consent. In their view, the deal would jeopardise the basic rights of small producers by strengthening the monopoly position of big U.S. multinationals controlling the banana market in Latin American countries. The agreement was approved with 18 votes in favour and 5 against.

Under the Lisbon Treaty, Parliament's consent is required for agreements of this kind, although MEPs cannot amend the legislation. To ensure that their position on the banana agreement is heard, International Trade Committee MEPs drew up an accompanying draft resolution setting out their concerns about the deal's impact. This resolution will be tabled for a plenary vote. 

In this text, MEPs also call on the Commission to table, at the earliest opportunity, an impact assessment on the effects of the agreement on banana-producing developing countries and on the EU's outmost regions until 2020. They also called on the EU to adjust the POSEI programme to ensure that it provides sufficient financial support to the EU's outermost regions.

What next?

The report recommending that Parliament grant its binding consent to the Geneva agreement will be put to plenary vote on 3 February in Brussels.

The EU is the world's largest banana market. More then 70% of bananas sold in the EU come from Latin America (mainly Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama), around 20% come from the ACP States (basically Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Belize and Surinam), and the rest from the EU itself (Cyprus, Greece, Madeira, Canary Islands and French overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique).

PROCEDURE: consent (agreement on trade in bananas), co-decision (repeal of the regulation on EU banana import tariffs) + oral question with resolution.