Banana War

▪ 2000

      In early 1999 it appeared possible that a long-standing dispute over bananas might turn into a full-blown international trade war. On Dec. 21, 1998, the Office of the United States Trade Representative had announced that it would impose penalty rates of duty on a published list of European products if the European Union (EU) did not modify its proposed new import regime for bananas. The retaliation list covered such items as cheese, candles, handbags, sweaters, chandeliers, and bath items. The American action followed years of acrimonious debate and failed efforts to resolve a dispute over the European import regime for bananas. Under this regime the EU allowed a fixed tonnage of bananas from associated African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries to enter its market on a preferential basis. The U.S. and non-ACP countries in the Caribbean challenged both the level of such preferential imports and the preferential allocation of the import licenses to European firms that benefited by not having to pay the normal European tariff on banana imports.

      Under the dispute settlement procedure of the World Trade Organization (WTO), any country that believes its trade interests have been harmed by an action taken by another country can request the establishment of a panel to rule whether the measure violates world trade rules. If the panel agrees that the measure violates the rules, and if this finding is confirmed by the standing Appeals Body upon appeal, the offending country must either eliminate the provisions found to be inconsistent with the rules or give the complaining countries increased market access in some other area. If it does neither, the complaining countries can impose retaliatory duties on imports from the offending country.

      Under this procedure the U.S. and a number of Caribbean countries brought a complaint against the EU banana regime in 1995. A WTO panel found in mid-1997 that the regime violated the rules of the WTO, and this finding was confirmed by the Appeals Body the following September. In response to these findings, the European Council adopted a new regime in 1998, but the U.S. argued that the new regime did not substantially alter the previous regime and it therefore had a right to retaliate. What followed over much of 1999 was a protracted argument over whether the U.S. had a right to retaliate or had to initiate a new complaint.

      In the end a new WTO panel agreed with the EU that the WTO had to review the new EU regime before the U.S. could retaliate, and it subsequently agreed with the U.S. that the new regime continued to violate the rules. The public exposure accorded to the banana war in the daily press marked the increased importance of trade and the WTO in a globalizing world economy.

Geza Feketekuty

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