Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Anthony Hylton, will be leading a delegation to Ecuador and Colombia in a bid to resolve a trade dispute on bananas with the Latin American (LatAm) countries.

Currently, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is conducting a probe into the European Union (EU) banana tariff, which Ecuador has claimed is unfair, as Latin American nations have to pay more than African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) producers.

Tariff payment

The Latin American countries currently have to pay 176 euros (119) per tonne on banana imports. In contrast, annual imports from the Caribbean and Africa are currently duty-free unless they exceed 775,000 tonnes. At that point, they are subject to the same level of duty.

As a result, Ecuador, the world's largest banana producer, asked the global trade body to establish a compliance panel, claiming Brussels had failed to comply with WTO rulings.

The EU had blocked Ecuador's initial request and accused the country of seeking preferential treatment at the expense of some of the most vulnerable countries in the global trading system.

Yesterday, Senator Anthony Hylton told The Gleaner that the ACP has asked him to lead the delegation in Ecuador and Colombia to have discussion with them in resolving the issue.

"I have called them (Latin Americans) here to have a discussion on the issue and the general state of relations between Jamaica and Latin America and out of that the Colombians have responded (and) issued an invitation," he said.

Mr. Hylton said a date has not yet been set for when the delegation would leave.

Last Friday, Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO, told The Gleaner that the matter was being reviewed by the WTO. He was unable to say when the WTO would be likely to make a ruling on the issue.

The WTO has consistently ruled against how the EU sets tariffs for bananas, forcing the 27-nation bloc to overhaul a system that grants preferential conditions for producers from ACP countries, mainly former British and French colonies.

Latin American producers and banana companies based in the United States have long complained that the EU rules favour Caribbean and African producers.

The United States, in 1999, and Ecuador a year later, won the right to impose trade sanctions on European goods after the WTO found the EU's rules to be illegal.