§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) of 24 October 2000,Official Report, column 101W, on the banana trade dispute, what the obstacles to compensation are; and how they are affected by World Trade Organisation membership. [135793]
§ Mr. CabornAny compensation scheme for companies affected by the banana dispute would raise a number of questions concerning compatibility with both the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and EC state aid rules. There is a significant risk that a scheme would be incompatible with these. As I pointed out in my earlier answer, the only way to alleviate this burden from all the companies facing US sanctions is to find a solution to the banana dispute that is satisfactory to all parties. It is precisely this that the Government have been working hard to achieve since the US first imposed retaliation last year.
No other European State is running a scheme to assist its own industries affected by the dispute. Several posts have reported that their hosts have looked into such a possibility and have concluded that any scheme would fall foul of these rules.