The European Union said it will institute a transition period of modified quotas and tariffs to end in 2006, while the U.S. trade officers said Washington will lift a range of punitive tariffs imposed on some European products by July 1.

Since 1993, when the European Union market was created, new rules were imposed against fruit imports from Latin America--where U.S. companies have plantations--in order to protect investments by European capitalists in their former colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Chiquita Brands and Dole Foods, the leading U.S. banana enterprises, raked in profits from European sales because bananas could be sold at twice the price of those in the United States. Chiquita alone had 40 percent of the banana market. With the 1993 regulations, Chiquita's market share and profits plummeted. The company filed suit against the European Union and demanded Washington impose trade sanctions in retaliation.

Dole contends the new deal favors Chiquita because the new European import licences will be based on import levels from 1994 to 1996 when Chiquita had a bigger share.
 
 
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