SoBe Musa

Here is th Link :
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/...anas-deal.html

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union reached agreement on Monday Dec 14 of 2009 to put an end to a decades-long trade dispute with Latin American and other smaller producers over tariffs on banana imports, diplomats said.

"Everybody is finally on board and an initialling of the deal is scheduled for Tuesday," one diplomat with direct knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters.

The deal resolves the world's longest-running trade dispute, which involves banana exporters in Latin America and other regions challenging the EU's preferential treatment of producers in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific region.

The agreement means the European Union will steadily cut tariffs on bananas supplied from Latin America and other smaller producers such as Thailand and the Philippines.

Under the deal, the duties on bananas would fall to $114 a tonne by 2016 or a few years later from $176, with an initial cut to $148.

In return, Latin American banana producing countries are expected to drop challenges to the European Union, the world's largest trade zone, at the World Trade Organisation.

Poorer ACP growers in mostly former European colonies will get around 200 million euros (179.7 million pounds) in compensation for the negative effects the pact may have on the preferential treatment given to them by Brussels, diplomats said.

The deal is likely to reduce prices for consumers, increase competition in the banana market and strengthen the hand of low-cost Latin American exporters.

Although the United States does not export bananas, it is a party to the agreement because several big distributors and processors such as Chiquita, Dole and Del Monte are U.S. corporations and are likely to benefit from the deal. Irish company Fyffes, a major European distributor, will also gain from the new agreement.

(Reporting by Darren Ennis; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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Dalmatiansoap

Well, if this means more cheaper bananas than

but on the other side
Im not in EU,
Im not in Latin America,
Azia, noooo
just somewere between Heaven and Earth
I ll have to stick to my own corps for now, hahaha!
Thans on info Emily

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palmpje

I've read about this in the newspaper. If this only giving advantage to Dole and Chiquita, then there is no advantage to this.
They should cut the import taxes for bananas that are cultivated in honest labour conditions, althus giving the advantage to fair trade bananas.

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lorax

FINALLY! This doesn't just give the advantage to the Big Three banana companies - it opens the markets to the small ones and more importantly the growers' cooperatives. With tariffs coming down, they can finally afford to export their crops - stuff that would otherwise have been sold only domestically or rotted waiting for transport.

ewitte

Pretty much sums up that "world hunger" is more political than anything. Lots of places have spare food they can't do anything about because of all the red tape.

lorax

You'd be absolutely shocked by what I see down here on a daily basis. I've passed citrus orchards with ankle-deep fruit on the ground because the market for it is saturated and the collectives can't make the tariffs to export it. Ecuador is extremely lucky in that even if three or four of our main crops fail, there are others to replace them. Although we have to currently import electricity, we're one of the only countries in the world that can export rice, and personally if I had to choose, I'd rather have a full tummy in the dark.

palmpje

Lorax: I tought that Thailand, US and Urugay where the top rice exporting countrys. Am I wrong?
We eat rice almost every day, so thats why it interests me.

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Bananaman88

Hopefully lowering these tariffs will be a positive thing for all; especially the Latin American growers who for too long have gotten the shaft.

SoBe Musa

Here some recent news is a Banana war out there:

link:Green Med Journal - The Mediterranean Fresh Produce Magazine

PORTS, TRIESTE AND KOPER FIGHT BANANA WAR
A "banana war" has broken out between the ports of Trieste and Koper, as a significant amount of goods originally handled by the Italian port now switched to the Slovenian hub. 07/01/2010 17:15
Some 25,000 tonnes of banana traffic switched from being handled by Trieste Port to Koper Port. The Slovenian harbor decided to offer a ten-day period of free storage in cold warehouses to the goods handled by a Russian operator importing bananas from Ecuador to Eastern European Countries, including Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia, Ukraine, or even Russia's machines dispensing fruit snacks in schools.

The operation raised concerned reactions from the Port of Trieste. Walter Preprost, managing director of the Port of Trieste's fruit terminal, said to Trieste's local newspaper Il Piccolo that "we have been deprived of a big traffic of fruits handled by a Russian operator from Ecuador to Eastern European countries: a total amount of over 25 thousand tons of bananas per year which would have strengthened and made our terminal's future prospects more certain, as well as more work to do since part of the goods was due to arrive by container."

The counteroffer that the Italian port tried to make (two days of free cold storage), was not sufficiently good to beat Koper's one, which was almost unbeatable thanks to the state support the Slovenian port can enjoy

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