Following protests last week by the Jamaican government, the UK intervention board has decided to reverse a previous decision to deny a licence to a Jamaican banana exporter.
The board, which supervises the implementation of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), had refused the licence in a bid to bring trade relations between UK, the EU and former colonies in line with the rest of the world. A dispute over the preferential EU and UK market access enjoyed by former colonies ended last month, when importers agreed to grant licences based only on past trading volumes.
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By 2006, a tariff only import system will be introduced for all banana-exporting countries.
The board previously argued that Jamaica’s Banana Export Company was not a traditional exporter, however Jamaica’s foreign trade minister Anthony Hylton welcomed the reversal saying: “This decision to grant the licence clears the way for the orderly expansion of our banana industry by allowing continued access for our fruit to the UK.”
