WTO panel to rule on EU-Ecuador banana import spat

(GENEVA) - The World Trade Organisation said Tuesday it would rule on Ecuador's complaint about the European Union's banana import rules.

The WTO's Disputes Settlement Body formally set up a panel to consider the dispute at a meeting here after an EU veto against the move earlier this month automatically lapsed. The process is expected to take three months.

Ecuador formally lodged a complaint with the WTO last November. It is the first such challenge to revised EU rules on banana imports from outside the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) zone that took effect last year.

Ecuador's ambassador said earlier this month that the new 176-euro-per-tonne customs duties had added 131 million dollars to the country's export bill.

The EU's changed import policy was partly a response to a landmark WTO ruling in favour of several Central American banana exporters in 2001 that had forced Brussels to cut duties.

Citing EU statistics, Ecuador said its share of the EU banana market had fallen to 27.5 percent in the first eight months of 2006, down from 29.9 percent in the corresponding period one year earlier.

The United States supports Ecuador's claim, while the EU stance is backed by ACP members such as the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Cameroon.