Spain produces bananas for the European Union in the Canary Islands as does Portugal in Madeira and France in their Caribbean territories .These three have refused to accept any import deals that could threaten their production.

The Spanish Agriculture Minister ,Elena Espinosa,her French and Portuguese counterparts all met withrepresentitives of the Association of European Banana Growersin Madrid to discuss future import plans.In a bid to cement relationships with the World Trade Organisation,the European Commissionis keen to make a significant cut in its banana import tariffs which it hopes will put an end to a prolonged trade dispute with Latin American producers.

The French Agriculture Minister has said that they cannot accept any cuts in tarrifsthat protect their products and those of poor countries,as behind these tariffs there are the jobs of people.He went on to say that they would write to the European Commission to tell them that they want a multilateral agreement which is legally secure and not some agreement which will not safeguard their industry.