ANNOUNCEMENT 27 Oct 2012

In October 2012, the European Commission announced a change in import duties.

NUMBER OF INTERVENTIONS

1

  • 0 harmful
  • 0 neutral
  • 1 liberalising

SOURCE



WTO, 'Historic signing ends 20 years of EU-Latin American banana disputes', http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news12_e/disp_08nov12_e.htm
EU Certification of Modifications and Rectifications to Schedule CXL - European Communities, effective 27 October 2012, document WT/Let/868, including the Geneva Agreement on Trade in Bananas as an annex.


Inception date: 27 Oct 2012 | Removal date: open ended

Import tariff

Ending a twenty-year-long trade dispute over the imports of bananas into the EU from certain Latin American countries, the EU's schedule of commitments following to the so-called Geneva Agreement on Trade in Bananas has been certified by the director-general of the WTO and have become effective as of October 27, 2012, after a three-month period in which WTO members could raise objections to the EU's schedule of commitments (and none did).
The trade war on bananas dates back to 1992 and has seen many twists and turns (click here for a brief overview). What is new is that all other measures, including the Special Agricultural Safeguard (SSG), have been abolished and replaced by a tariff-only import regime, making imports more transparent and creating a level playing field for all banana exporters to the EU.
The agreed maximum tariff rates are:

  • 15 December 2009-31 December 2010 - 148 EUR/tonne
  • 1 January 2011 - 143 EUR/tonne
  • 1 January 2012 - 136 EUR/tonne
  • 1 January 2013 - 132 EUR/tonne
  • 1 January 2014 - 127 EUR/tonne
  • 1 January 2015 - 122 EUR/tonne
  • 1 January 2016 - 117 EUR/tonne
  • 1 January 2017 - 114 EUR/tonne

If there is no agreement on a framework deal (or 'modalities') in the Doha Round agriculture negotiations by 31 December 2013, these annual tariff cuts for the remaining years can be delayed by up to two years.

AFFECTED SECTORS

 
214

AFFECTED PRODUCTS

 
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