Developing countries seek to end WTO banana split

By Jonathan Lynn

GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - Two groups of developing countries are in talks to resolve a dispute over bananas that threatens to derail efforts to reach a new global trade pact, ministers and diplomats said on Wednesday.

The row over European Union import rules for bananas pits growers in Latin America against mainly former European colonies in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, especially the West Indies.

"The negotiations are continuing. We hope we can come to a reasonable conclusion," said Ronald Robinson, minister of state in Jamaica's foreign affairs and foreign trade ministry.

"We are talking to the Latins since yesterday. There are encouraging signs," he told Reuters.

Ecuador, the world's top banana exporter, and the United States, on behalf of U.S. corporations distributing Latin American fruit, have mounted several successful challenges at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against the EU rules.

They say EU import rules giving preferential treatment to the ACP producers are discriminatory, even after reforms by Brussels cutting the banana tariff for most countries to 176 euros ($277) a tonne, while leaving a big duty-free quota for the ACP countries.

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