Bananas.org - Latin America: negotiate with EU on bananas

Latin America: negotiate with EU on bananas
Tholen – The eight Latin-American banana exporting countries have deemed it necessary to start constructive negotiations with the EU, to define the banana import tariff that will apply starting 2006. This was the most important conclusion at the banana top which was held in the Panamanian capitol yesterday, in the presence of foreign trade ministers from Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
It sounds as if the different ministers have agreed to disagree agreeably, as they want to confront the EU in negotiations with a common front, while they can not define a common proposition to put forward. The Panamanian Foreign Trade minister who presided the meeting declared to the press that, whatever system the EU may implement, it will have to be a system that ensures that Latin-American banana exporters maintain their access to the European market.