Producers of bananas fight quotas

BOGOTA (Reuter) - Eight Latin American banana producers have urged European Community ministers to reject a proposal to impose quotas on their banana exports, which they said would cost them up to dollars 600m ( pounds 312m) a year.

Agriculture and trade ministers from Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela met in the Colombian capital to decide on a response to a European Commission proposal to restrict Latin American banana imports.

'We reject the system proposed by the Commission and reiterate the legitimate aspiration of our countries for a free market in bananas in the European Community from 1993,' the ministers said at the end of the meeting.

They said Latin American banana exports should instead be subject to tariffs for a limited period, leading to complete liberalisation of the market.

Community ministers will rule on the issue next month. The Commission is proposing a unified code for banana imports from 1993, which would impose a 20 per cent import duty on Latin American bananas and a basic quota of 2 million tonnes per year. The move aims to protect banana exports of former European colonies in Africa and the Caribbean.