Meeting with US today to discuss Bananas Dispute
05/03/1999
Senior officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment discussed today with the US Embassy the implications of the recent decision taken by US authorities to impose restrictions on US imports of designated EU products.
The Government's concerns about the application of these measures to Irish and other affected EU exporters were conveyed to the US side. The Irish officials expressed the Government's view that the WTO ruling in this matter will be available in a matter of weeks and that the EU was committed to accepting the final decision of the WTO. They recalled Ireland's strong and consistent support for discussions between the European Commission and the US to resolve this problem.
It was pointed out that the EU and its member States are considering what action to take in response to the US measures and that any action would conform to WTO rules.
