COLOMBIA JOINS ECUADOR IN BANANAS DISPUTE AGAINST EU

Colombia on 30 November announced that it would seek to participate in Ecuador's recent WTO complaint against the EU's banana import regime. The two countries claim that Brussels discriminates against their banana exports in violation of prior WTO rulings.

The longstanding dispute has pitted Latin American banana producers against the EU, over the latter's system for granting preferential market access to bananas from its former colonies in African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries.

Two weeks ago, Ecuador, took the first step in WTO dispute settlement, filing a request for consultations with the EU (see BRIDGES Weekly, 22 November 2006). Colombia has now signed on to this request (WT/DS27/66). The consultations will serve as a platform for the three Members to examine the WTO compatibility of the EU's banana regime, particularly with regard to an Appellate Body ruling from 1997, and to see if they can resolve the disagreement without formal adjudication.

It had been unclear whether Ecuador would receive the formal support of other Members claiming to have been harmed by Brussels' banana regime. However, Colombia had already spoken in support of Ecuador's case during a 21 November meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). WTO rules require potential third parties to a dispute to have a substantial trade interest in the consultations in question.

Colombia filed to join the consultations after Ecuador modified its own 16 November request to make it clearer that other countries were free to seek to sign on to the case.

Sources suggest that other Latin American banana producers involved in the dispute may well join the new complaint.

Ecuador's revised request for consultations (WT/DS27/65/Rev.1) is available at http://docsonline.wto.org.

ICTSD reporting..