Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-11-14-Speech-1-125"
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"en.20051114.16.1-125"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, I have been draftsman of the opinion of the Committee on Development for successive reforms of the COM in bananas, and I have spoken in all the debates we have held, on 13 April 2000, on 13 December of that same year and on 4 September 2003, to mention just the most recent.
You may feel reassured to know, Commissioner, that, during this final stage of the negotiation, with so much disappointment and bad news in terms of our interests, you have not been alone. You have been accompanied by certain national governments, such as that of my own country, and the governments of certain banana-producing regions. You have also had the understanding of certain representatives of the European banana producers, who appear to be resigned to awaiting a solution, which you have mentioned in your speech, involving a magic formula such as the one achieved in the so-called ‘Madeira Agreements’, which for the moment just has the air of a Portuguese
which, as you know, Commissioner, is more a song of nostalgia and sadness than one of hope.
Before leaving his post, Commissioner Lamy informed us, on 21 April 2004, that he intended to propose a tariff of EUR 230 per tonne of bananas imported. Since then, since the new Commission took office, both you and your colleagues and the Commissioner for Trade have sought to reach an agreement.
You must acknowledge, Commissioner, that what you have said tonight does not shed much light on the direction you intend to take. You must clearly take the decision to apply a tariff from 1 January and we shall see how high it is.
Nevertheless, you are very well aware – the Commission is very well aware – that that decision guarantees you a new dispute with the producer countries of the ‘dollar area’ within the WTO almost immediately if that tariff exceeds their expectations. In other words, we shall gain a few months of time at the expense of creating certain risks for the ACP group of countries and new uncertainties for our European producers.
In the end, provided that nothing unexpected emerges from the imminent Hong Kong Summit, the Commission will have to seek a negotiated solution with the Latin American banana-producing countries.
The legitimate question I would like to ask is why the Commission expressly gave up the search for that agreement during the months of March, April and May, when there is reliable evidence that, via various diplomatic channels, the Latin American producers sought an agreement, though of a transitional nature, on a temporary extension of the system in force which would provide a margin for the negotiation of a more stable and lasting solution.
Commissioner, I believe that the Commission did not pay any attention to these wishes because, at that time, it was confident that the arbitration within the World Trade Organisation could agree to the establishment of a tariff of EUR 230. That was our first setback.
Then a new tariff of EUR 187 was proposed, with identical results. You have confirmed here today that you are very disappointed by the result of the second arbitration of 27 October. At that time, the comments of certain officials, and your own comments, Commissioner, showed the same perplexity and disappointment that you have expressed today.
You said then that it was necessary to prevent the banana dispute from being included on the Hong Kong agenda. I believe that this is another mistake, Commissioner. All it needed was for a country such as Honduras, which may be many good things, but is hardly an all-powerful giant of a country, to ask that the banana dispute be included on the agenda of the Hong Kong Summit, in order to achieve what the Commission wanted to prevent at all costs."@en1
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