(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission will appeal against a recent WTO ruling that the European Union's banana import duty regime breaks international trade rules, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

"It is our intention to appeal this particular decision," commission spokesman for trade issues Peter Power told journalists after world trade's referee confirmed on Monday that it had backed a US complaint against the EU.

The United States had argued that EU import duties of 176 euros (276 dollars) a tonne imposed on banana imports from Latin America harmed exports from major producer nations like Ecuador, Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua.

Although the United States does not export bananas to the EU itself, three of the largest producers with plantations in Latin America are US-based multinationals: Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole.

In contrast, developing countries in the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, which include many former European colonies, were able to import bananas under a quota system that permits 775,000 tonnes of duty-free imports per year.

However, that system no longer exists since the beginning of the year, when the EU adopted new preferential trade pacts with the ACP countries after the WTO deemed past arrangements to be illegal in a separate case.

Power said that the WTO ruling on bananas "sets a bad precedent, in that it is irrelevant given that our ACP preferences have been abolished at the beginning of this year."

"We believe such a decision encourages WTO challenges by member states which are not affected by particular decisions," he added.

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