Council takes final step to implement agreement on settlement of the banana trade dispute

The Council agreed on 19 December 2001 to modify the EU import regime for bananas in order for the USA and Ecuador definitively to lift sanctions against the EU.

The decision meant that phase II of the understandings reached with the USA and Ecuador earlier this year can now be implemented. The sanctions have been suspended since 1 July 2001. Phase II is the second step of the interim period which precedes the application of a tariff only system, due to start on 01.01.06 at the latest.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Relations between Ecuador and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/relations-between-ecuador-and-the-eu/

EU: EEAS: United States of America and the EU https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/2339/

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