Ecuador criticises US-EU banana deal

Ecuador, the world's largest banana exporter, has rejected an agreement between the United States and the European Union settling their long-running trade dispute over bananas.

Ecuador says that the new bilateral deal benefits the large American-based multinational banana corporations, limiting how much fruit local companies in developing countries can sell to the profitable European market. It says Ecuador was better served by the current import rules of distributing banana import licences on a first-come, first-served basis. Last year, the World Trade Organisation found that the EU discriminated against American companies such as Dole and Chiquita which market fruit from Latin America in favour of former European colonies in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service