Ecuador has reportedly joined Costa Rica in rejecting the European Union’s (EU) recent offer to reduce its controversial import tariff for bananas from Latin America.

According to reports in the country, Ecuadorian negotiators are said to have ruled out the EU’s offer to decrease the current tariff level of €176 per tonne to €114 per tonne by 2020 after consultations with leading banana producers and exporters in the country.

Ecuador’s chief negotiator with the EU, Méntor Villagómez, told El Telegrafo that the country had concluded that the recent proposal would not be beneficial to the sector.

He said the Ecuadorian side was still hopeful that the EU would agree to honour the terms of an agreement made between the two sides in July last year during World Trade Organisation trade talks, which would have seen the tariff falling to €114 by 2016.

Mr Villagómez said that the Ecuadorian delegation was in constant talks with their European counterparts, although a breakthrough in the discussions had yet to be made.

“First we will speak about the July agreement and see what happens afterwards, but the position of the country is that (the original deal) would solve the problem,” he said.

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