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US Lifts Sanctions on EU Over Banana Trade
The US government on Sunday lifted its sanctions against 191 million US dollars worth of products from the European Union (EU) in a dispute over EU banana trade barriers, the government said.
"The EU has complied with the first phase of the understanding, and so today the United States will lift its WTO-authorized retaliatory duties," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said in a statement.
Zoellick said the United States was satisfied with the steps the EU had taken to implement an agreement the two sides had reached on April 11. That deal will begin to dismantle the barriers American banana companies found objectionable.
The Clinton administration imposed 100 percent tariffs on 191 million dollars of EU products in 1999 after the EU refused to comply a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling that the EU's banana import barriers were inconsistent with WTO rules.
Two big U.S. companies, Chiquita Brands International Inc. and Dole Foods Co., which have big banana plantations in Latin America, contended they had lost almost half of their European sales when the EU in 1993 implemented a new quota system that gave preferential treatment to bananas grown in former European colonies in the Caribbean and Africa.
Under the banana agreement, EU will gradually increase its quotas for bananas grown in Latin America until 2006 when all preferential quotas would be eliminated. The new European licensing system was to take effect Sunday.
"This process represents a serious effort by the United States and the EU to manage our differences in a spirit of mutual respect, " Zoellick said.
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