HONG KONG, China (AFP) – The European Union’s new tariff plan for bananas is fair and will not damage Latin American exporters, the EU agriculture commissioner insisted yesterday.

Speaking at a World Trade Organisation conference, which Latin American nations have said could be threatened by EU intransigence over bananas, Mariann Fischer Boel said Europe was not looking for a fight.

“We have been sending a clear signal to the Latin American countries that we will be willing to continue to negotiate with them,” Fischer Boel told journalists. “The EU has devoted considerable time this year to getting this right,” she said.

“We are quite sure it will more than maintain present possibilities for Latin American countries to get into the European market.”

Last month, the EU announced a new import tariff of 176 euro ($208) per tonne for bananas from Latin American countries from January 2006. The new arrangement would replace a contested quota-tariff system that had been outlawed by the WTO following previous challenges.

A day later, Panama and Honduras, who have led the Latin American challenge to the EU’s banana policy, took the first step towards reviving the long-running battle with Brussels at the WTO.

They said the EU was undermining their faith in the global trading system, which is in the spotlight at the six-day conference of the 149-nation WTO, and could threaten efforts to reach a wide-ranging deal to liberalise international commerce and help poor countries benefit from freer trade.

The two countries demanded consultations with the EU, saying the proposed new tariff goes against WTO rulings and will drive bananas from Latin American developing nations out of the European market.

Fischer Boel said the EU is fully aware of the need to respect WTO rulings.

The EU also plans to put in place a monitoring system that could adapt the tariff system if the Latin Americans are found to be losing out, she said.

“We think this has all been done in a very transparent way, a very neutral way,” she added.

EU nations have been struggling with the need to respect the WTO’s decisions and pressure to maintain a preferential banana trade deal with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping of countries.

But Latin American opponents have won a string of victories in complaints over bananas against the EU at the WTO.

The European Union had to revise its previously planned banana tariff after the WTO struck down an earlier offer, saying it was too high to allow fair competition from Latin American exporters.

Latin American banana producers export an annual combined 3.4 million tonnes of bananas to the 25-state EU.

The first 2.2 million tonnes are currently covered by a quota that sets a tariff of 75 euro per tonne, but the rest are slapped with a tariff of 680 euro.