The EC Banana Regime - a Testcase for the Relationship between WTO, Regional and National Law

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Scientific Essay from the year 1998 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, University of Tubingen (Law), language: English, abstract: The creation of the internal market within the European Community (EC) made itnecessary to integrate the differing national arrangements that were still existing by1993 with regard to a variety of goods. One of these Community-wide regimes adoptedis the EC banana regime. It is one of the most disputed regimes so far1An import tax of 20 was in force in the open, free market economies of theBenelux, Ireland and Denmark before the EC banana regime came into force. Only inGermany was no import tax levied because of the Banana Protocol of 25 March 1957.Bananas from ACP countries could be imported into all EC countries as a matter ofprincipal tax free pursuant to Art. 168 of the Lomé Convention IV. After 5 years of negotiation2 the common market organization for bananas cameinto force on 1 July 1993. The legal basis is the Council Regulation (EEC) 404/933, abrief summary of which follows. Its regime discriminates against banana producers whoare not based in the EC or in countries of the African, Caribbean or Pacific area (ACP),and against companies that distribute bananas that originate in those countries. Atpresent imports of bananas from twelve previously determined traditional ACPcountries enter the Community duty free, up to a maximum quantity fixed for eachcountry in the regulation. Non-traditional ACP and third-country imports are subject toa tariff quota which lies well below the quantity these countries exported to the ECbefore the new banana regime was introduced with an import tax of 100 ECU per tonne.Furthermore, out of quota shipments are subject to a prohibitive duty, which rendersimportation uneconomical, that is 750 ECU per tonne for imports from ACP states and850 ECU per tonne for third country bananas. Licensing requirements are applied toimports of traditional as well as non-traditional ACP- and third countries. As a result ofthese regulations, operators who traditionally marketed third country bananas have acompetitive disadvantage over those who marketed Community bananas.4 Licenses forimportation of bananas from non-traditional ACP and third countries are issued to threemarket sharing groups. Accordingly the earlier importers of these bananas only receivea quota of 66.5%.[...]