EU/Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru and Venezuela Geneva Agreement, and EU/US Agreement: trade in bananas

This document concerns the Agreement on trade in bananas between the European Union and the United States of America.

It aims in particular to settle a long standing dispute between the EU and the USA on trade in bananas. By this Agreement, the two Parties undertake not to take any further action with respect to the dispute between the date of initialling of this agreement and the settlement date, provided that the EU complies the following:

• to apply a MFN tariff-only regime for the importation of bananas and therefore not to apply measures affecting the importation of bananas into its territory in the form of quotas, tariff rate quotas, or import licensing regimes for bananas supplied from any source (other than automatic licensing regimes solely for market monitoring purposes); and,
• not to apply any measure that discriminates between suppliers of banana distribution services based on the ownership or control of the service supplier or the origin of the bananas distributed.

In accordance with applicable World Trade Organization ("WTO") rules, the EU will notify to the WTO promptly upon conclusion, any concluded bilateral or regional free trade agreement that includes provisions regarding trade in bananas. The United States and the EU agree to communicate, and upon request of either party the other party will consult, in a timely manner with respect to any issues arising under or relating to this agreement.