WTO - 20 year Banana Dispute Ends
THE European Union and 10 Latin American countries signed an agreement on 08 November 2012 settling the longest-running series of disputes in the history of the multilateral trading system. "This is a truly historic moment," said WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy. "After so many twists and turns, these complicated and politically contentious disputes can finally be put to bed."
The banana issue is one of the longest running disputes in the multilateral trading system. It has generated considerable debate and litigation among the widest range of the entire WTO membership. And it has resulted in multiple legal rulings by dispute panels, the Appellate Body and special arbitrators. All this attention has focussed on the treatment the EU gives to the import of bananas from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in preference to bananas from Latin America.
The dispute started in July 1991, when Costa Rica expressed concern in the GATT Council meeting that an impending EU banana import regime would discriminate against Central American countries. It urged agreement in the Uruguay Round for free trade in bananas. Colombia, Honduras, Peru, Venezuela and Mexico shared this concern.
And we are not on banana republics but the banana problem of Republics.