EU/LATIN AMERICA : COUNCIL ENDORSES BANANA IMPORT AGREEMENTS.

The EU Council approved without debate, on 7 March, the Union's conclusion of two agreements with banana exporting countries, including the 2009 Geneva agreement that ends the 16-year trade dispute between the EU and Latin American countries (Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela).

The Geneva agreement reduces EU import duties on bananas from Latin American countries. It also ensures that the EU's final market access commitments for bananas in the next World Trade Organisation trade negotiations on agriculture will not exceed those established in agreements concerning the tariff treatment of bananas. The Council also adopted at first reading a regulation that repeals the current regulation on the tariff rate for bananas, approved and adopted by the European Parliament on 3...