Colombia should withdraw WTO arbitration request

Tholen - According to Adrianus Koetsenruijter, the delegate of the European Commission for Colombia and Ecuador, commented to a Colombian newspaper that the country should better not submit an arbitration request to the WTO concerning the European banana import tariff. Compared to the previous system of import licenses combined with an import tariff much has improved already, while now one only has to deal with an import tariff. The main interest of Colombia lies with market access and not as much with the actual import tariff. The market access has already much improved. Therefore the solution to the present discontentment would be the withdrawal of the WTO demand, negotiation and the demonstration of how the exports have developed under the new system the past year, according to Koetsenruijter.

Publication date: April 02 2007
Author: André van der Wiel
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