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DISPUTE SETTLEMENT: DISPUTE DS158

European Communities — Regime for the Importation, Sale and Distribution of Bananas

This summary has been prepared by the Secretariat under its own responsibility. The summary is for general information only and is not intended to affect the rights and obligations of Members.

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Summary up-to-date at

Consultations requested — no panel established nor settlement notified

Complaint by Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and the United States.

On 20 January 1999, these countries (complaining parties) requested consultations with the EC in respect of the implementation of the recommendations of the DSB in European Communities — Regime for the Importation, Sale and Distribution of Bananas. The complaining parties state that the 15-month reasonable period of time for the EC to implement the DSB’s recommendations and rulings ended on 1 January 1999 (see WT/DS27). The complaining parties alleged that the EC modified its regime in a manner that will not permit this dispute to conclude at this time on the basis of a solution that is acceptable to their governments, and as a result, jointly and severally, request consultations with the EC concerning the EC banana regime established by EC Regulation 404/93, as amended and implemented by Council Regulation 1637/98 of 20 July 1998 and EC Commission Regulation 2362/98 of 28 October 1998. The complaining parties contended that their objective is to clarify and discuss in detail with the EC the various aspects of the EC’s modified banana regime, including their effect on the market, their concerns about their WTO-inconsistency, and ways that the EC might modify its regime in order to produce a satisfactory settlement of this dispute.

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