EC Banana Dispute and the GATT/WTO

Abstract

The notorious banana saga has been dealt with on three levels : the GATT/WTO, the EC Court of Justice("ECJ")and EC Member States' courts. These different f ora did not render convergent decisions, but rather complicated the matter further. Clearly, the EC banana regime favoured EC and ACP bananas to the detriment of third-country bananas. GATT/ WTO panels supported arguments by non-ACP parties and found the banana regime to be inconsistent with EC's obligations under GATT/WTO nondiscrimination rules. However, the ECJ has rejected legal challenges against the EC regime, thus giving rise to conflicts with GATT /WTO findings and national courts. This paper reviews the banana dispute before the GATT/WTO, the ECJ and national courts to compare each judicial control over the EC trade