GENEVA (Reuters) - World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitrators are due to rule on Friday whether Ecuador can impose sanctions on European Union goods worth up to $450 million a year over Brussels banana import policies, diplomats said.
The arbitrators' report, formally confidential until the end of next week, is expected to be delivered to the Ecuadorean and EU missions in Geneva, according to the diplomats.
Ecuadorean officials said they had no idea what figure the arbitration team would be putting on their country's losses from restrictions on imports under the EU banana regime -- found in violation of open trading rules by a WTO panel three years ago.
But diplomats following the case said they expected the sum to be considerably less than the $450 million that Ecuador, the world's biggest banana exporter, says it is losing.
The United States, which won a separate WTO case against the EU regime, asked for clearance to impose duties worth $520 million a year on exports from the 15 EU members.
But WTO arbitrators last year fixed the sum at only $191 million.
However, diplomats noted that, while the United States promoted its case on behalf of U.S.-based banana marketing companies and does not export bananas itself, Ecuador is a major producer whose economy depends heavily on exports of the fruit.
Ecuador has said it will impose retaliatory duties on areas of trade like patents and licensing which benefit the EU and not on EU goods because restrictions on these would further damage the country's fragile economy.:
