GENEVA, Feb 8: The World Trade Organisation has ruled in favour of a complaint by the United States against the European Union’s banana import regime, US trade officials said on Friday.

“We can confirm that the United States prevailed in its challenge,” an official said on condition of anonymity.

The United States had argued that EU import duties of 176 euros ($255) a ton imposed on banana imports from Latin America harmed exports from major producer nations like Ecuador, Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua.

Although the United States does not export bananas to the EU itself, three of the largest producers with plantations in Latin America are US-based multinationals: Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole.

In contrast, developing countries in the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, which include many former European colonies, can import bananas under a quota system that permits 775,000 tons of duty-free imports per year.

The European Commission in Brussels on Friday blasted the WTO’s backing for a US complaint against Europe’s banana import regime as “regrettable” and “irrelevant.”

”It is regrettable that the WTO DSU (dispute settlement understanding) mechanism is allowed to be used by a WTO member which is in no way affected by the measures challenged,” the Commission said in a statement.

The Commission said that the ACP market preference regime targetted by the case no longer existed, since new trade pacts with those countries took effect at the start of this year.

“This ruling ... would be a bad precedent since it is not only irrelevant ... but it encourages WTO challenges by WTO members who are not affected by the measures at stake,” the European Union’s executive arm said.

“The fact that US multinationals are engaged in exports of Latin American bananas to the (EU) market should not be sufficient to establish a prejudice,” it said.

The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body already ruled last November in a similar case brought by Ecuador.

Latin America accounts for four-fifths of EU banana imports, with ACP countries making up the rest.

“The bananas dispute is the longest running dispute in WTO history. This is the tenth proceeding against the EC,” the US official said.

The EU’s current import regime replaces one that itself was deemed in breach of WTO rules in 2001 after a complaint by Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and the US.

Under the previous regime, bananas from Latin America and non-ACP countries were subject to a tariff of 75 euros a ton under a certain quota level and 680 euros a ton above that level.

Ecuador, the leading exporter of bananas to the European Union, argued last year that the latest EU system was preventing it from maintaining its share of the European market.

Quito said its share fell to 27.5 per cent in the first eight months of 2006 from 29.9 per cent in the same period of 2005.—AFP