QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – Presidents and representatives from seven Latin American banana-producing nations yesterday issued a written objection to a European Union plan to impose a euro230 (US$300) per ton tariff on their crops starting in 2006.

“The effects could be devastating to development in our countries,” said the statement issued after the one-day meeting to set strategy on the issue. “Importation of bananas from Latin America to the European Union is of the utmost importance for political stability and economic and human development … to reduce poverty in our nations.”

The document was signed by five presidents – Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe, Costa Rica’s Abel Pacheco, Nicaragua’s Enrique Bolanos, Panama’s Martin Torrijos and Ecuador’s Lucio Gutierrez – as well as representatives from Honduras and Guatemala.

The EU has said the new duty is meant to prevent producers in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries from losing business to larger growers in Latin America, which sell about 3 million metric tons of the crop to the EU annually.

The Latin American producers maintained the European restrictions would run contrary to World Trade Organisation rulings against preferential banana import rules.

Uribe told reporters that what the Latin American bloc was seeking from the EU was “comprehension” of “international accords on agricultural products”.

Ecuador’s foreign commerce minister, Ivonne Baki, said the joint statement would be sent immediately to the EU in Brussels, where “the ambassadors from all of our countries will present a complaint together.”

The Latin American nations are seeking a tariff of euro75 (US$98) a ton, she said.