What Role Has Politics Played in the History of Chiquita Brands and Its Predecessor?

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- Imports from the ACP region under the quota of two million tons (also referred to as “traditional” ACP imports) (i.e. the ACP region consisted mostly of the former colonies of Britain and France)

- Imports from the ACP region in excess of the quota amount (also referred to as “non-traditional” ACP imports)

- Imports from territories that belonged to European countries (also referred to as EC imports).

According to this regime, third country imports would be taxed at a rate of 30%. Third country imports in excess of two million tons would be taxed at 250%, making it virtually impossible for those countries to export more than two million tons of bananas to Europe per year. Traditional ACP imports would not be taxed. Non-traditional ACP imports would face a tax of 222%. As for EC imports, they would be treated the same way as imports from the ACP region.

The two million ton quota for third country imports was divided in three according to three licenses.

- Category (A) operators: Which are the operators who had historically marketed bananas from non-ACP regions (i.e. mostly American companies, like Chiquita), would be entitled to import 66.5% of the quota amount.

- Category (B) operators: Which are the operators who had historically marketed bananas from ACP regions and European territories in amounts that respected the quota, would be entitled to import 30% of the two million ton quota.

- Category (C) operators: Which are the operators who started marketing bananas from non-ACP regions as of 1992, they would be entitled to import the remaining 3.5% of the quota amount.

Due to the strong opposition of many Latin American countries to the EU’s new banana import policies, the EU decided to offer preferential treatment to some Latin American countries by increasing the quota on Latin American banana imports from 2 to 2.1 million tons, and by allowing four countries (Costa Rica, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) to be entitled to 49.4% of the exports from Latin America to Europe.

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