EU aims to keep preferential access for ACP bananas despite WTO ruling

BRUSSELS (AFP) — The World Trade Organisation ruling against the European Union's planned new tariffs on bananas does not put at risk the preferential access the bloc gives imports from the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations, the EU executive said.

"The idea remains to offer preferential access to ACP countries," said European Commission spokeswoman for trade issues Claude Veron-Reville.

Countries belonging to the ACP group currently benefit from preferential, tariff-free access for their bananas to European markets.

"We are allowed to consider maintaining a preference for ACP countries," Veron-Reville said a day after WTO arbitrators ruled against the EU's forthcoming revised banana regime.

The three WTO arbitrators ruled that an EU tariff of 230 euros (281 dollars) per tonne, which would be applied mainly to imports of bananas from Latin America, would be too high to allow those ...