SWITZERLAND: THE UNITED STATES IS TO ASK WTO TO APPROVE SANCTIONS AGAINST GOODS FROM EU IN THE LONG-RUNNING BANANA ROW

Record ID: 337003

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: THE UNITED STATES IS TO ASK WTO TO APPROVE SANCTIONS AGAINST GOODS FROM EU IN THE LONG-RUNNING BANANA ROW
  • Date: 12th January 1999
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (JANUARY 12, 1999)(REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION BUILDING 0.05 2. CU LOGO 0.08 3. SV OFFICIAL ARRIVING FOR SPECIAL HEARING 0.17 4. SV U.S. ENVOY, RITA HAYES ARRIVING FOR MEETING (2 SHOTS) 0.28 5. MCU (English) HAYES SAYING: "We've been asked by Ecuador and the EU for a panel and we are
  • Embargoed: 27th January 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Reuters ID: LVADJJRGN7JTB30XDDAW7NET2P0K
  • Story Text: The United States is to ask the World Trade
    Organisation (WTO) on January 25 to approve hefty sanctions
    against goods from the European Union in their long-running
    banana row, U.S.trade envoy Rita Hayes said on Tuesday.

    Hayes indicated that if the EU were willing to "sit
    down and talk about the substance" of the dispute, then the
    United States could reconsider its approach.

    She spoke to reporters shortly before the WTO's Dispute
    Settlement Body (DSB) agreed to an Ecuadorean request to
    reconvene an expert panel to review the EU's new banana import
    and marketing regime to decide whether it complied with open
    trading rules.

    Both the EU and Ecuador had originally asked for panels,
    whose rulings all countries are committed to observe, at a DSB
    session in December.Under WTO procedures, such requests are
    granted automatically the second time they come to the DSB.

    The EU has said it regards the Ecuadorean approach as
    almost identical to what it insists is its own -- getting
    quick WTO action on assessing whether its new banana regime,
    which went into force on January 1, conforms to open trading
    rules.

    The previous regime, shaped to favour bananas imported
    from former European colonies mainly in the Caribbean, over
    fruit from Latin America largely marketed by big U.S.firms,
    has already been found wanting by an earlier WTO panel.

    The United States and five Latin American countries --
    including Mexico and Ecuador -- who launched the original
    complaint say its replacement is little different and does not
    conform to the recommendations of that panel.

    Washington has announced plans to slap sanctions from next
    March on EU goods worth around $568 million unless Brussels
    changes the new regime to its satisfaction, although it has
    also said it will come to the WTO for formal approval.


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