Last Friday the European Commission decided to maintain the preferential tariff that favors the import of Guatemalan bananas, even though imports of this product to the EU surpassed the 65,000 ton annual limit, established by the Commission in September.
The Association of producers of Plátano de Canarias (ASPROCAN) does not agreed with the arguments on which this decision was based and they have requested increased support for producers in the outermost regions, against a decision which they believe, reflects a willingness to rescind the protection mechanisms established in Community legislation. According to European regulations, the Commission should analyze the safeguard and stabilization measures for bananas, and verify that the importing countries comply with the rules established in the marketing agreement. That regulation provides that the Commission should adopt surveillance measures, which have previously been agreed on, once there is an increase of imports, concentrated in one or more regions or Member States.
According to the Commission, they made this decision because "there is no indication that there is a threat of serious deterioration for producers in the outermost regions." However, the producers from Platano de Canarias have maintained, during a historically low price level throughout 2016, something that contradicts this argument. In fact, after several years of continued decline, currently the average price has reached a level that threatens the survival of the producers from the Canary Islands.
According to producers, it is not possible to determine the deterioration of Community products by only taking into account the Union's market's data as a whole, as it is necessary to assess the specific situation of the national markets where the Community producers are. An example of this is the Spanish market, where the demand for Platano de Canarias is countered by the low prices of bananas from third countries, which makes it the country that sells imported bananas at the lowest price within the Union.
Thus, ASPROCAN requested the Commission to perform an analysis by markets and countries, in order to determine the real situation that every area experiences and how banana imports from outside the Union specifically affects each country. Producers believe that the valuation system used makes manifest the need of establishing new effective mechanisms to protect the European of banana and plantain production.
In addition, they asked the Commission not to wait until there is a negative effect throughout the Union to take the necessary measures, something that is not realistic, as this would eventually mean that the European banana sector would disappear, as it would only be concentrated on specific markets within the union that do not work as a single market.
For these reasons, ASPROCAN deems it essential that the observer of prices that was recently proposed by the European Parliament starts to operate as soon as possible, with the participation of representatives of the sector of the outermost regions, and that it serves as a consultation forum for making these decisions, which have a paramount impact on the sustainability of the European banana sector.
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