Seattle Post-Intelligencer | BLOOMBERG NEWS
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union said yesterday that it will file a complaint at the World Trade Organization if the United States doesn't lift $113 million in trade sanctions once the 15-nation bloc has overhauled its banana-import regulations.
EU ministers signed off on the new banana import rules yesterday, after the WTO last year decreed the existing regulations illegal. The current system favors the bloc's banana-exporting former colonies in Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean, over Latin American bananas exported by U.S. companies Dole Food Co. and Chiquita Brands International Inc.
The new system would allocate EU banana-import licenses on a first-come, first-served basis until 2006, when it would switch to a tariff-only import system. The United States says the new rules don't comply with WTO demands.
c 2000 Bloomberg News Service. All rights reserved.Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
