Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 5 • Number 29 • 31st July 2001

French Infringement of the EU-US Banana Deal

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On 25 July, the European Commission called on France to comply with the banana import deal reached between the EU and US in April 2001 to resolve their long- running trade dispute (see BRIDGES Weekly, 1 May 2001). The Commission threatened to take France to the European Court of Justice, alleging that France has allowed more than 50,000 tons of Latin American bananas to be imported at a reduced rate of customs duty, significantly exceeding French importers’ entitlement of 4,000 tons. The decision followed shortly after a US complaint to the WTO’s dispute settlement body, pointing out that there seemed to have been a “significant departure from licensing allocations” set out in the agreement. “Brussels may sue France over Banana imports,” FT, 25 July 2001.