哥伦比亚诉欧盟香蕉案.doc

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION ? ? ? WT/DS361/1 G/L/818 26 March 2007 ? (07-1254) ? ? ? Original: ?English ? ? ? EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – REGIME FOR THE IMPORTATION OF BANANAS ? Request for Consultations by Colombia ? ? ?The following communication, dated 21 March 2007, from the delegation of Colombia to the delegation of the European Communities and to the Chairman of the Dispute Settlement Body, is circulated in accordance with Article 4.4 of the DSU. ? _______________ ? ? ?My authorities have instructed me to request the European Communities (EC) to consult with Colombia pursuant to Article 4 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU), Article XXIII:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994), and Paragraph 3 of the Understanding in Respect of Waivers of Obligations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 on the regime for the importation of bananas that the EC has applied since 1 January 2006. ? Background to the consultations requested by Colombia ? ?In the dispute EC – Bananas III, certain aspects of the ECs previous banana import regime were found to be inconsistent with WTO law. 1 The EC reached Understandings with Ecuador 2 and the United States 3 identifying means for the resolution of that dispute. According to these Understandings, the EC was to introduce a Tariff Only regime for imports of bananas no later than 1 January 2006, 4 to rebind its import tariff on bananas, and to initiate GATT Article XXVIII negotiations ... in good time to that effect … 5 ?? ? ?Both Understandings provided for the application of three tariff-rate quotas until 31 December 2005, including a zero duty tariff-rate quota for bananas originating in ACP States (ACP bananas) up to an annual quantity of 750,000 tonnes. ?6 To enable the EC to accord this tariff-rate quota, the EC was granted a waiver from Articles XIII:1 and XIII:2 of the GATT 1994 until 31 December 2005 (the Arti