(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission said Thursday it had launched an appeal to overturn a WTO ruling against Europe in a long running trade dispute over bananas with the United States and Ecuador.

The European Union's executive arm said it was taking the action after efforts to negotiate a settlement fell apart during broader WTO free trade negotiations in July, which also collapsed.

"The EC has today notified the WTO that it will appeal the panel reports on the banana cases brought by Ecuador and the US," the commission said in a statement.

"The commission has devoted huge energy over recent months to finding a mutually agreed settlement to the long running dispute," it added.

Earlier this year, the World Trade Organisation dispute settlement body backed complaints from Ecuador and the United States against the EU's banana import regime.

Banana imports from mostly poor former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific region enter the EU tariff-free.

Latin American exporters, which currently are subject to taxes of 176 euros per tonne, have been pushing for this trade barrier to be lowered.

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.

Eager to put an end to the decades old dispute, the EU had offered to lower its tariffs on Latin American bananas on the sidelines of the WTO negotiations in July.

The various sides came close to signing a settlement in Geneva but the deal fell through as the overall WTO negotiations on global trade liberalisation collapsed.

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