EU goes bananas on imports
is making appropriate arrangements to ensure a sufficient supply of
bananas to all consumers in the EU. To this end, the current import
volumes for bananas will be increased to satisfy an EU comprising
25 states.
The exact additional volume of bananas will be based on historical imports to the new Member States and is subject to negotiations with the bloc's WTO trading partners. Before the beginning of May, the Commission will determine the additional quantities of bananas and will take the necessary measures which will enter into force as of 1 May 2004.
The Commission says that these transitional measures are without prejudice to the decision taken by the Council to move to a tariff only import system no later than the 1 January 2006.
"The EU will fully respect its obligations and commitments," said Franz Fischler, EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries. "We will safeguard the interests of the EU producers. The preferential access for producers from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries will be maintained and our WTO commitments entirely honoured."
The Commission today adopted a regulation which lays down the specific measures for banana imports following enlargement. It has also published a notice to operators in the banana sector, asking them to make themselves known.
The objective of this procedure is to establish a list of operators in the EU 15 who fulfil the conditions to qualify either as traditional or non-traditional operators and who have supplied the market of the new Member States during recent years. A similar list of operators established in the new member states has to be drawn up by their competent authorities.
The Commission Regulation to be published specifies documents to be provided in order to prove the status of traditional or non-traditional operator. Appropriate checks of these documents must be carried out. In this matter, the Commission says that a close cooperation between the administrations of new Member States and the EU 15 is required.
The existing regime provides a transition to a tariff-only system no later than 2006. During this transitional phase, bananas are imported into the European Union through import licenses distributed on the basis of past trade. The current import licence arrangements are largely managed on the basis of historical references - 83 per cent of the quantities of the quotas go to traditional importers.
However, to ensure that non-traditional operators can pursue trade in bananas, 17 per cent of the quantities are reserved for operators, who do not have a suitable historic reference.
