EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – REGIME FOR THE IMPORTATION, SALE AND DISTRIBUTION OF BANANAS
Document: Status Report by the European Communities Addendum
Date: 4 May 2001
Document codes: WT/DS27/51/Add.18
Complainant: Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, U.S.
Respondent: EU
Third parties: Belize, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican, Ghana, Grenada, India, Jamaica, Japan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Panama, Philippines, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Suriname, Venezuela, Côte d’Ivoire, Brazil, Madagascar
Dispute stage: Mutually Agreed Solution
Agreements cited: Art. I, II, III, X, XI, XIII  GATT 1994Art. 1, 3  Import LicensingArt. II, XVI, XVII  Services (GATS)Art. 2  Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs)Art. 19  Agriculture

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – REGIME FOR THE IMPORTATION,
SALE AND DISTRIBUTION OF BANANAS
Status Report by the European Communities
Addendum
The following communication, dated 3 May 2001, from the Permanent Delegation of the
European Commission to the Chairman of the Disp ute Settlement Body, is circulated pursuant to
Article 21.6 of the DSU.
Status Report on the Implementation of the Recommendations and Rulings in the
Dispute regarding
1. Since the last status report, the European Communities have continued their bilateral
discussions with interested WTO Members.
Intensive discussions with the United States and Ecuador, as well as the other banana supplying
countries, including the other co-complainants, have led to the common identification of the means by
which the long-standing dispute over the EC's bananas import regime will be resolved.
2. In accordance with Article 16(1) of Regulation No (EC) 404/93 (as amended by Council
Regulation No (EC) 216/2001, notified to the DSB as document ), the European
Communities will introduce a Tariff Only regime for imports of bananas no later than 1 January 2006.
GATT Article XXVIII negotiations will be initiated in good time to that effect.
3. In the interim period, starting on 1 July 2001, the European Communities will implement an
import regime based on three tariff rate quotas, to be allocated on the basis of historical licensing.
4. The Commission Regulation for the management of the TRQs during the second semester of
2001 has been adopted on 2 May 2001 and will be published in the Official Journal of the European
Communities in the coming days.
The new import licence arrangements will continue to be largely managed on the basis of historical
references, with 83% of the quantities of the quotas managed in this way. However, in order to meet
the requirements of the international obligations of the EU, and to ensure that non-traditional
operators can pursue trade in bananas, several significant changes have been introduced. The major
adjustment is the predominant use of a new definition of traditional operators that will now be based
on primary importers, that is, importers who own or buy bananas in the country of origin and ship
them to the EU. 17% of the quantities will be reserved for similar operators who do not have a
suitable historic reference. This quantity will be managed on a "simultaneous examination" method.

5. A transfer from 1 January 2001 of 100.000 tonnes of bananas from the "C" tariff rate quota as
currently defined by Council Regulation (EC) No 216/2001, to the autonomous "B" tariff rate quota,
and the related reservation of the "C" quota to imports originating in the ACP countries, are
conditioned by the granting of the appropriate WTO waivers.