WTO to Hear EU Complaint Over U.S. Tariffs

The World Trade Organization has summoned all 133 member countries to an emergency meeting Monday to discuss European Union claims that the United States is imposing illegal sanctions in a trade war over bananas.

The WTO agreed Friday to a meeting of its General Council--the organization’s top decision-making body--after an EU request that the council discuss its complaint that the sanctions violate global trade rules.

“The members have to say something, otherwise it is a bad message for the future” of the trading system, said Ambassador Roderick Abbott, head of the EU trade delegation in Geneva, where the WTO is based.

The Clinton administration has “taken this measure in blatant disregard of the provisions” of the WTO, Abbott told the Associated Press.

U.S. officials in Geneva said they are confident they will be able to defend the move.

The 15-nation EU bloc is protesting planned U.S. tariffs on $520 million worth of European goods in retaliation for European barriers on banana imports. The tariffs would double the cost of the targeted goods--from handbags to cashmere sweaters--pricing them out of the American market.

On Thursday, the EU filed a formal WTO complaint against the United States. The Europeans asked the WTO to give the two sides 20 days to settle their differences. If they fail, the EU could then ask the WTO to rule on the dispute.

The United States says American banana companies lose $520 million annually in sales to Europe because of illegal trade barriers that favor bananas imported from former European colonies in the Caribbean and Africa. The sanctions are meant to equal the lost sales.

The WTO has already ruled against the EU in the banana dispute, prompting Europe to modify its import rules. But the United States says the Europeans didn’t go far enough.