The EU Council of Ministers has drawn a line under the longest-running trade dispute in WTO history, approving December 2009 deals on reducing EU banana import tariffs.

The deals had been struck with 12 countries including the US, Brazil, Costa Rica and Ecuador, solving complaints that the EU unfairly favoured Caribbean island banana exports with quota and tariffs. The concerns had fuelled WTO proceedings from 1996.

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The EU will now reduce banana tariffs from EUR176 per tonne (US$244) to EUR114 a tonne by January 2019 at the latest. EU ministers and MEPs have been debating the agreements for the last 15 months.

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