European countries have skewed policies to favor banana imports from former colonies; the United States slaps discriminatory tariffs on steel.

In 1993, the European Union established a new regime on banana imports.

Under trade organization rules, the sanctions must be equal to the amount of trade that American companies have lost from discriminatory banana imports.

They have settled one prolonged dispute over banana imports in Europe.

The EU and US had a long running dispute over the EU's banana imports.

Europe has openly defied the rulings, tinkering with its banana imports but never solving the problem.

The standoff, in which the United States tried to end protectionist European limits on banana imports, dragged on throughout the Clinton administration.

The United States and the European Union, the world's trade giants, are distracted by skirmishing over banana imports.

As the rapporteur says, we have reached the final stages of a regime for protecting banana imports, which will come to an end on 31 December 2005.

The European Community recently adopted a package of quotas and tariffs aimed at cutting by more than half Europe's banana imports from the region.