Jan 9, 1998

 

EC GETS TIME TILL 1 JANUARY 1999 FOR BANANA REGIME CHANGE

 

Geneva, 8 Jan (TWN) -- The European Communities have been given 15 months to comply with the ruling of the WTO Dispute Panel on its single market banana regime that has been held to be illegal.  

The time kicks in from the time the ruling of the appellate body was adopted last September.

This means the new regime to comply with the WTO ruling must come into being by 1 January 1999, at the latest.

The ruling had held the EC's tariff quota arrangements, favouring the ACP countries governed by the EC's Lome accord, to be invalid and violative of the GATT and the GATS.