Brussels, Nov 16 - Ecuador has filed a complaint at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against the European Union's single import tariff for bananas, an industry source said on Thursday.
Ecuador, the world's largest banana exporter, has long said the EU's import duty of 176 euros ($225) a tonne, in force since January 2006, is far too high and damages its local industry.
The system, to replace a complex arrangement of duties and quotas, was agreed with the WTO to end the 1990s "banana wars" that Europe lost at the hands of Ecuador and the United States.
During 2005, while the EU's executive Commission was negotiating the level of its new tariff, WTO panels slapped down two previously proposed EU duties of 230 and 187 euros, saying they were too high and discriminated against Latin America.
Before the new regime entered into force, Latin exporters paid 75 euros per tonne, within set quotas, to get their fruit into Europe. Anything above that faced a duty of 680 euros.