How did the United States-European Union banana dispute begin?
This dispute began with the creation of the European Union’s single market in 1993. In order to eliminate internal barriers between EU member countries, the EU felt it needed to adopt a single banana regime. The regime it created erected new barriers to bananas exported from Latin America and marketed by U.S. companies. The regime also took export opportunities away from U.S. companies and gave them to EU companies. Why has the U.S. objected to European quotas that were designed to benefit poor African and Caribbean countries? ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) received few of the benefits of the European quota regime. The structure of the EU regime took marketshare from U.S. companies and Latin American countries that had historically supplied the European market. What is the WTO and GATT history of this dispute? In 1992, even before the EU regime entered into force, several Latin American nations successfully challenged it in the GATT. The EU ignored the GATT’s findings. Afte
