Ecuador seeks EU banana deal


5 May 2000



Ecuador seeks EU banana deal


ECUADOR is to ask the EU to buy more of its bananas to help compensate for the unions discriminatory banana import regime, reports the Financial Times.

On Friday (05 May) Ecuadors foreign minister Heinz Moeller will tell EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy his country prefer this solution rather than impose US$201 million (131m) sanctions.

These were authorised by the World Trade Organisation following an adverse ruling against the EU.

Ecuador hopes to persuade Brussels to allow it to fill an annual shortfall of more than 320,000 tonnes in EU quota worth the quota worth $180m.

The WTO has also upheld a US complaint that the EUs banana import regime unfairly favoured bananas from former European colonies.

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