(BRUSSELS) - African, Caribbean and Pacific countries said on Thursday proposed cuts in EU banana import tariffs were an "unacceptable" threat to its producers.

Hoping to give a boost to broader WTO talks, the European Commission said Wednesday it was ready for a sharp cut in its banana import tariffs in order to end a long-running trade dispute with Latin American producers.

However, African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations are worried that the tariff cut would undermine the preferential access to the vast European Union market that they have long enjoyed.

"By sanctioning such unacceptable tariff cuts, this compromise solution puts the ACP banana production in irreversible jeopardy by giving undue advantage to the Latin American producers," the group said in a statement.

"Should the proposed tariff cuts be applied as things actually stand, they would deal a lethal blow to the ACP banana industry and consequently, have an adverse effect on the ACP economies," it added.

The commission said Wednesday it was prepared to accept a settlement proposed by WTO chief Pascal Lamy that calls for Europe to gradually reduce its import tariff to 116 euros (185 dollars) per tonne by 2015 from 176 euros currently.

The commission said that a solution to the banana dispute would in turn give a boost to WTO negotiations on tropical products, one of the main sticking points within broader agricultural talks.

The commission has voiced hopes to resolve the long-running banana dispute before a meeting of 30 leading WTO players in Geneva aimed at making a breakthrough in the stalled trade liberalisation talks.

The ACP countries' opposition to the banana tariff proposal reduces the chances that the decades-old banana dispute can be resolved ahead of the Geneva meeting.

However, Latin American countries are confident they will soon reach a deal in banana dispute, according to a diplomat from the region.

"The banana issue is now overshadowing the possibility to finding final agreement on the tropical products," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told reporters earlier on Thursday.

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