./.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/C/W/305
26 September 2001
(01-4589)
Council for Trade in Goods
5 October 2001Original:  English
REQUEST FOR A WTO WAIVER
New ACP-EC Partnership Agreement
The following communication, dated 25 September 2001, has been received from the
Permanent Delegation of Ecuador.
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After several rounds of plurilateral consultations and in light of the difficulties faced by the
Council for Trade in Goods to begin the examination of the waiver requests for Articles I and XIII of
the GATT for the implementation of the EC-ACP Partnership Agreements (PA) and the EC banana
import regime, Ecuador reiterates its view that the proposal tabled in document G/C/W/267 is the best
basis to address this issue.
Concerns expressed by the EC and ACP countries.
It is understandable that the EC and ACP countries want to obtain the waivers for Articles I
and XIII of the GATT to have the necessary legal security to apply the PA and the EC banana import
regime in order to maintain the current market access conditions for ACP products in the European
market. Ecuador's proposal1 clearly takes into account these concerns since it proposes a waiver for
Article I, paragraph 1 of the GATT, until 31 December 2007, for all products originating in ACP
States to the extent specified in the schedules to the interim trade provisions of Annex V of  the ACP-EC Partnership Agreement as of 2 July 2000. Annex V and its schedules are the relevant parts of the
PA that set the terms and conditions for the preferential treatment of all products for which the EC
will grant preferential treatment to ACP countries.
With regard to bananas, Annex V and its schedules of the PA determine that the preferential
treatment for bananas from ACP origin will be determined by the EC banana regime.
2 In turn, the
banana regime of the EC is determined by relevant EC regulations and the Understandings on
Bananas of the EC with Ecuador and the United States.3 Ecuador's proposal in the form of a draft
decision by the General Council to grant the required waivers takes into account all the elements of
the EC banana import regime and thus will allow the application of the PA.
The EC and ACP countries concerns regarding the WTO incompatibility with Articles I and
XIII of the GATT 1994 ar e dully taken into account by the Ecuadorian proposal since all bananas
from ACP origin will be granted preferential treatment by securing a zero tariff level in a tariff rate
                                                     
1 Paragraph 1 of document G/C/W/267.
2 G/C/W/187/Add.1, p. 46.
3EC Regulation 216/2001 and Commission Regulation (EC) No. 896/2001, WT/DS27/58,
WT/DS27/59, WT/DS27/60.G/C/W/305
Page 2
quota especially reserved for ACP bananas. The volume of bananas that have access to this TRQ is
exactly the same as requested by the EC, which in turn is higher than the ACP traditional volume of
exports to the European market. Since 1993, when the EC banana regime came into force, ACP
banana exports to the EC have been well below 750,000 tones which is the volume reserved for ACP
bananas in the new regime and which will be preserved by the waiver to Article XIII as proposed byEcuador. For all practical purposes, all concerns so far expressed by the EC and ACP countires are
taken care in the draft decision contained in document G/C/W/267.
Concerns expressed by other WTO members.
Some members of the Organization have expressed concerns regarding the lack of clarity and
specificity of the EC and ACP waiver requests, especially regarding the description of measures thatwill be waived. Although the EC has submitted this information in a piece-meal approach by
presenting several documents with several adde nda through a period of over 18 months, Ecuador
believes that the information presented could be sufficient, provided that the description of the
measure in question is framed appropriately in the waiver decision to be adopted by the General
Council.
Ecuador considers valid the concerns of some members when they claim that the EC-ACP
waiver request failed to provide a description of the measure covered by the waivers by simply
incorporating by reference general provisions of the PA. However,  by introducing in its draft waiver
decision a clear and direct reference to the relevant provision of the PA, Ecuador can provide thenecessary clarity to better describe what will be covered by the waiver.
To this regard, document G/C/W/267 refers explicitly to Annex V and its relevant schedules
of the PA and by doing so determines which  products and countries are covered by the waiver to
Article I of GATT, and the conditions under which the waiver will be applied.
4
Regarding bananas, document G/W/C/267 clearly specifies the conditions for the application
of the waivers for Article I and Article XIII of the GATT5, including the level of preference and the
volume of bananas subjet to that preference throughout the duration of the EC banana import regime
that should remain in force until 31 December 2005. Ecuador agrees with the views that the level of
preference and the volume of bananas subject to that preference must be explicitly defined by the
waiver decision to avoid future misunderstandings and grant legal security to the ACP countries, theEC, and especially to all WTO members which have been negatively affected by the longstanding
banana dispute.
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4 G/C/W/267 Paragraph 1.
5 G/C/W/267 Paragraphs 3(a) and (b).