More time for U.S.-EU banana row talks

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. and European negotiators have been given more time for World Trade Organisation-brokered talks to resolve a long-running clash over bananas, Geneva trade diplomats said on Tuesday.

Brussels said last month it planned to appeal a WTO ruling that found the EU continued to break international trade rules by giving preferential treatment to bananas imported from Europe's former colonies, in a complaint brought by Washington.

The WTO's Dispute Settlement Body agreed on Tuesday to extend until August 29 a deadline to adopt that compliance panel report "to provide an opportunity for ongoing discussions to continue", following a joint U.S. and European request, a source familiar with the meeting said.

"The European Commission stated that the new deadline would provide a large margin to conclude the negotiations which would be the only way towards a solution," the trade official said.

The United States does not export bananas to Europe, but three of the biggest distributors with plantations in Latin America are U.S. multinationals -- Chiquita Brands International, Del Monte Foods and Dole Food Co.

Washington complained that EU tariff rules favored banana suppliers from ex-colonies of Britain, France and Portugal at the expense of Latin American producers.

The U.S. case dovetails with a parallel dispute lodged by Ecuador, the world's largest banana exporter, which yielded a similar verdict against Brussels earlier this year.

Ecuadorian diplomats had also asked the Dispute Settlement Body to suspend the formal adoption of that ruling to give time for talks between Ecuador and Brussels.

WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, a former European Trade Commissioner, is directly involved in negotiations to resolve the "banana wars" which are among the longest-running and most complex international trade disputes.