Union of Banana Producing Nations Proposed
Costa Rica's president, Abel Pacheco,  Thursday proposed creating a union of Latin American banana producing nations, a move aimed at fighting higher European Union tariffs designed to protect producers in the Caribbean and Africa.

Wrapping up a daylong summit on the tariffs, Pacheco said other nations had welcomed the idea. The topic will be discussed further at another meeting planned for July 18 in Panama, he said.

The union of banana exporting nations "would function like a support arm for governments," Pacheco said.

Industry officials applauded the idea, although he said the private sector should be involved.

"Something like this is necessary to achieve common goals," said Eduardo Ledezma, president of Ecuador's Association of Banana Exporters.

The presidents of Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Panama, as well as representatives of Nicaragua and Honduras attended the summit held at the Intercontinental hotel in Escazú, west of San José.

They discussed ways to fight a European Union plan that would raise tariffs on their exports to euro230 (US$274) a ton from the current euro75 (US$89).

The Latin American producers are particularly worried that a group of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries - many of them former European colonies-- would be exempt, giving them an export advantage.

Caribbean producers had demanded high EU tariffs on their Latin American competitors, saying their own struggling industries would be badly damaged otherwise.

Costa Rica Foreign Trade Minister Manuel Gonzalez acknowledged that the meeting "in principle does not influence" a World Trade Organization panel considering a Latin American protest of the EU plan. But he said it served "to send the necessary messages."