Banana Framework Agreement

The Banana Framework Agreement (BFA) outlines regulations on the treatment, sharing, and production of bananas and other various banana related activities. It was concluded in 1993 between the European Union and Costa Rica, Colombia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, following a dispute in the framework of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) on the EU's banana import regime.

Five Latin American countries (Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Venezuela) had forwarded a complaint against the EU's banana import regime in 1993, stating that it violated fundamental GATT principals. The panel established in the GATT framework confirmed this view, but its report was not adopted, as the required unanimity was prevented by the EU and countries belonging to the group of ACP states, who were receiving preferential treatment under the EU's importation regime. In the following, negotiations were held, after which four of the five complaining parties concluded the BFA with the EU, which granted them specific shares of the bound tariff quota they were subject to when exporting bananas to the EU.

Sources: UNCTAD (2009): The EC banana regime, GATT/WTO challenges, and the evolving policy framework. On: