U.S., EU work to settle banana trade dispute

U.S., EU work to settle banana trade dispute    The United States and European Union announced Tuesday they have signed an agreement designed to lead to a settlement of the longstanding dispute over the EU's bananas trading regime.
   In the agreement, initiated on Dec. 15, 2009, the EU will not reintroduce measures that discriminate among bananas distributors based on the ownership or control of the distributors or the source of the bananas, and to maintain a non-discriminatory, tariff-only regime for the import of bananas.
   The U.S.-EU agreement complements the General Agreement on Trade in Bananas (GATB) between the EU and several Latin American banana-supplying countries. The agreement provides for staged EU tariff cuts that will bring the EU into compliance with its World Trade Organization obligations. Together these agreements will enhance non-discriminatory market access opportunities in the $4 billion EU market for imported bananas and will benefit U.S. distribution companies.
   'All the parties still have some distance to travel before we finally and conclusively settle the bananas dispute,' warned U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, in a statement. 'However, we are closer now than we have ever been and I am hopeful that we will be able to finally lay this longstanding dispute to rest in the near future.'