Geneva, July 28 - African and Caribbean banana exporters came under pressure on Sunday to settle a decades-old row that could undermine global trade talks.
The prospects for make-or-break talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were delicately poised as rich and poor nations met again to thrash out proposals for new export opportunities under the negotiations, now in their seventh year.
A deal on bananas would settle one of the world's oldest trade disputes and is key to any breakthrough in the WTO's Doha round of talks which could give a boost to the global economy.
The European Union and Latin American banana producers agreed early on Sunday to cut the EU's import duty to 114 euros ($179) a tonne by 2016 after an initial cut to 148 euros in 2009 from 176 euros now, people familiar with the fruit talks said.
But Cameroon, speaking on behalf of banana exporters in the former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific (ACP), said the deal was unacceptable in its current form.
Lowering EU import tariff further for the ACP's competitive Latin American rivals could devastate ACP banana output, some countries warn. Their bananas face no EU import duty under the bloc's preferential trade deals with former colonies.
Cameroon's trade minister Luc Magloire Atangana Mbarga said dispute could block the wider talks. "There is a real risk but trade negotiations should not be about blackmail," he said before meeting EU officials. "We want healthy discussions."
He said African banana growers wanted cash to compensate for export revenues lost to Latin American competitors and a two- or three-year grace period before EU tariffs are lowered.
Later, the EU trade officials said Sunday's meeting did not provide an immediate breakthrough and would continue.
EU member states France and Spain also have farmers in the Caribbean territories and the Canary Islands who grow bananas.
The fruit is a key export for many Latin American and ACP countries.
Cameroon's banana industry is the biggest employer in the country after the public sector, and government officials say the industry helps prevent unrest in West Africa, which has been wracked by civil conflict in some countries in recent years.
The latest round of WTO talks began on July 21 and are likely to stretch into the middle of the coming week.
Ministers are seeking agreement on how to open farm and industrial markets, the two toughest areas of a global deal.
CHINA WORRIES
Ministers from 35 key WTO players resumed talks on Sunday evening on the Doha deal.
A trade source said some developing countries were growing alarmed at signs that China would seek to protect markets for rice, cotton and sugar and other industrial sectors, shutting off new export opportunities for them. This was likely to surface in Sunday's "Green Room" meeting.
"In the wider negotiation, everything still hangs on Sunday's Green Room session. There is no guarantee that the fragile package that began to emerge on Friday night will survive," EU trade chief Peter Mandelson wrote in his web blog.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab met trade ministers from Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali to discuss their demand for an 82 percent cut in U.S. cotton subsidies, which they say encourage overproduction and steal away precious export markets.
"They still don't have any decisive proposal to put on the table, but that doesn't mean they don't have some ideas," said Abdoulaye Sanoko, a diplomat from Mali's WTO mission, adding an agreement could be reached in coming days.
U.S. cotton producers feel they have been unfairly singled out the in the negotiations, and have put pressure on U.S. trade negotiators to save as much of the cotton programme as they can.
U.S. officials argue part of the solution is creating new export markets for West African farmers by persuading China and developing countries to cut tariffs.
The Doha negotiations were launched in November 2001 to boost the world economy and help developing countries grow out of poverty. They were almost written off last week as rich and poor countries remained deadlocked.
But a controversial move by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy to shut out most of the ministers and get seven key members to tackle the nine most sensitive issues was vindicated on Friday when they produced a grudgingly accepted compromise.