The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States

Port Moresby, 29 May 2006

The ministerial consultations on bananas were held in Port Moresby on 28 May 2006, under the chairmanship of Hon. Kwadowo Affram Asiedu, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry of Ghana.

In their deliberations, the Ministers discussed in particular the follow-up of the implementation of the new banana import regime that came into force on 1 January 2006, the ongoing discussions at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the treatment of bananas in the framework of the negotiations for the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA). They also discussed the import regime due to come into force on 1 January 2007 and the functioning of the financial and technical assistance programme.

As regards developments in the WTO discussions on bananas, the Ministers expressed concern at the attempts of the MFN countries to open a purely legalistic debate on the issue. They Ministers urged the ACP Group and the EC to remain vigilant so as to counter any attempt by the MFN countries to open up a debate on any basis other than economic whereas preliminary observations on the application of the regime in place since 1 January 2006 indicate that the MFN countries have more than maintained their access to the European banana market.

The Ministers praised the spirit of cooperation that had facilitated consultations between the European Community and the ACP Group, thereby enabling the ACP countries to be kept informed of the discussions within the facilitation process. They expressed regret, however, that this cooperation had not enabled the ACP Group to obtain all the information available to the European Union.

As regards the import regime for 2007, the Ministers insisted on the need to guarantee the viability of the banana-exporting enterprises of the ACP countries and to ensure access of their bananas to the EC market. They felt that, whatever the system envisaged, it must safeguard the financial and socio-economic benefits that the ACP countries derive from their exports to the European Community.

Furthermore, the Ministers called on the solidarity of the ACP Group with regard to the treatment of bananas in the framework of the EPA negotiations. The Group was urged to oppose the definitive position of the EC to include bananas in the EPA negotiations as long as the consequences of such an inclusion remained unknown.

As regards the functioning of the Special Framework Assistance, the Ministers appealed to the European Commission to take all the necessary steps to ensure the speedy adoption of the outstanding texts, as well as those intended to guarantee the ACP countries sufficient time to commit the resources once they have been made available.

List of member countries of the ACP Working Group on Bananas

Belize, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Ghana, Grenada, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, St. Lucia, Suriname and Tanzania