EU/Colombia and Peru Trade Agreement: accession of Ecuador; EU/Central America Association Agreement: CN code for bananas

The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by Marielle DE SARNEZ (EPP, FR) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 19/2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, and amending Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Central America on the other.

The committee recommended that the European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the Commission proposal as follows:

EU/Colombia and Peru trade agreement: Members proposed extending to Ecuador the current stabilisation mechanism for bananas. Ecuador is one of the main producers and suppliers of bananas to the Union, along with Colombia.

Increase transparency: the Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council of the trend in banana imports and their impact on the Union market and Union producers. To that end it shall carry out an annual analysis, by 1 October every year, covering the nine preceding months of the past year and shall communicate that analysis to the European Parliament and the Council. 

When import volumes reach 80% of the triggering threshold for the stabilisation mechanism outlined in the Annex to this Regulation, for one or more of the States Parties to the Agreement, the Commission shall formally alert the European Parliament and the Council by a written procedure.

The mechanism could be triggered automatically once the trigger volume is met.

Improving statistics: to enable imports and the state of the European banana market to be assessed in greater detail, the Commission shall develop accurate statistical tools which take account of trends in the volume and prices of banana imports.

The Commission shall publish on its Internet site, and update every three months, price trend data for green bananas on the European banana market.

Reporting: the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the application of the stabilisation mechanism for bananas by 1 January 2019. If the report identifies serious deterioration or a threat of serious deterioration in the state of the Union banana market and/or the situation of European producers, the Commission shall consider taking appropriate measures, including accompanying compensatory measures

Continuation of the stabilisation mechanism: Members believe that the Commission should consider whether the stabilisation mechanism might remain in force beyond 2020 in order to protect European producers from rises in imports from non-EU countries. One way to bring this about would be a joint declaration co-signed with Parliament (annexed to the motion for a resolution), and which the Council could likewise endorse. If the parties did not all give their consent to continuation of the mechanism, the Commission would have to think about corrective measure.