The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled against the European Union's import tariffs for bananas, officials said Friday, possibly opening the door to millions of dollars (euros) in US commercial sanctions.

But Jamaica's Dr Marshall Hall said immediately that CARICOM producers were unlikely to see any fallout from the ruling, saying they were cushioned by the new economic partnership agreement (EPA) with the EU.

ACCESS duty free

Bananas will gain full duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market from the inception of the EPA, and under the rule known as 'cumulation, will be protected under WTO rules.

"The signing of the EPA makes the ruling irrelevant," said Hall, speaking with Sunday Business on Friday. "That is, the EU has now signed an agreement with the Cariforum countries, so the findings in the case are no longer of interest or valid to us."

The WTO case centered on a banana tariff established by the EU in 2006 - euro176 (US$258) per ton - which the bloc claimed was in line with WTO rulings.

The confidential decision - distributed earlier last week to the parties and confirmed by US and EU officials - is an important development in the decade-old WTO dispute pitting Latin American countries and the United States against the EU.

The EU can still appeal.

The verdict will be closely followed by Chiquita Brands International Inc, whose shares climbed 9.2 per cent in one day last year on early reports that the EU would lose a similar case brought by Ecuador.

The WTO has consistently ruled against how Brussels sets tariffs for bananas, forcing it to overhaul a system that grants preferential conditions for producers from African and Caribbean countries, mainly former British and French colonies.

Hall says the EU will continue to face pressure from Ecuador, which also won its case against the EU in December for a lowering of the tariff rate.

"This then would be bad for us because our banana does not bear the tariff," he said.

While the EU repeatedly has tinkered with the import rules in recent years, none of the changes has withstood challenges at the trade body.

"This is the tenth proceeding against the (EU)," said the Office of the US Trade Representative in an emailed statement.

"We hope that the (EU) will finally ensure that it puts in place a bananas import regime that is WTO consistent."

Both the US and Ecuador decisions remain confidential and are only expected to be released in the coming months.

Michael Mann, spokesman for EU Farm Commissioner Marian Fisher Boel, confirmed the loss, but criticised the WTO panel for taking a "purely formalistic approach that found against something that does not exist anymore" - a reference to new rules for European banana imports that came into effect this year.

- AP and Gleaner reports