Panama and other Latin American countries win WTO banana arbitration

Latin America wins this round of banana arbitration with Europe

by Eric Jackson, from other media

Panama, along with Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, has won the first round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitration process over the Latin American countries’ dispute with the European Union (EU) €230 per metric ton import duty on bananas. WTO arbitrators found that the EU policy, which had been set to go into effect at the end of this year, improperly continued preferences for African, Caribbean and Asian countries over Latin American banana producers.

The European Union must now begin negotiations for a new banana tariff schedule, and if there is no agreement with the Latin American countries there may be another round of arbitration.

Hailing the result as a victory for the Panamanian economy, Minister of Economy and Finance Alejandro Ferrer told selected invitees from the corporate mainstream media at a Palacio de las Garzas press conference that “the present duty is 75 euros per metric ton and it must not go up from this figure.” European officials denied that their intent is to increase protectionism and said that they are evaluating their response to the arbitrators’ ruling.

The United Kingdom, France and The Netherlands, through their Caribbean and Pacific colonies, are banana producers. Moreover, European companies are larger players in the banana import business from Africa, the Pacific an the Caribbean than they are with respect to Latin America, whose banana industry is almost entirely dominated by the US-based Chiquita Brands and Dole fruit companies. However, the preferences that the EU has attempted to impose for several years now have been on their faces neutral about banana importing companies or European overseas possessions.

A previous banana importation regime imposed by the EU in 2001 was overturned by the WTO after a challenge by Ecuador and the United States.