BRUSSELS, Belgium (CMC) — The International Trade Committee (ITC) is recommending that Europe should help to put an end to the world’s longest-running trade dispute, by giving its final consent to the 2009 Geneva deal on banana trade tariffs.

The ITC said that the European Parliament should approve the accord even though “this deal could not fully reconcile all parties’ legitimate interests”.

Under the 2009 deal on banana import tariffs, the EU will gradually end its preferential treatment of banana exporters in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. In exchange, Latin American countries have agreed to drop their complaints against the EU at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and not to seek further tariff cuts in the Doha round talks.

The deal will see the EU gradually cut its import tariff on bananas from Latin America in eight stages, from Euro176 (US$241) a tonne at the outset to Euro114 (US$156) in 2017.

Bananas from the ACP countries will on the other hand continue to enter the EU market duty free. Furthermore, the main ACP banana-producing countries are to receive help from the EU budget, up to Euro200 million (US$274.1 million) to help them adjust to stiffer competition from Latin America.

The Geneva agreement is expected to bring benefits also to European consumers who should find cheaper bananas in stores thanks to greater competition between producers.

Special financial provisions are also foreseen for the EU’s outermost banana-producing regions. These provisions must be now spelled out in a different EU regulation, with Parliament as co-legislator. Parliament’s Agriculture Committee is now studying the proposed support scheme for certain agricultural products in the outermost regions.

The report recommending that Parliament grant its binding consent to the Geneva agreement will be put to plenary vote on February 3.

If the full Parliament consents to the deal, this will mark the end of the 16-year long banana war.

In 1993, the EU established an import regime that allowed ACP bananas to enter the EU market largely duty-free. On the other hand, the regime slapped tariffs on bananas from Latin America which are mainly produced by a handful of big US multinationals.

The EU is the world’s largest banana market. More than 70 per cent of bananas sold in the EU come from Latin America with around 20 per cent coming from the ACP States.