From Reuters:
During a meeting of trade ministers in July 2008 seeking a breakthrough in the Doha round, Brussels and the Latin Americans negotiated a deal that would cut the tariff to $114 a tonne by 2016, with an initial cut to $148.
Brussels walked away from that agreement when the overall Doha talks collapsed.
Diplomats said the new deal -- which has not yet been published -- would involve the same figures, but the final level would not be reached until later than 2016.
The ACP countries agreed to this because of an aid package from the EU of about 200 million euros (although there will be lively discussions within the group about how to divide that up) and concessions in broader talks about the treatment of other tropical products, such as sugar, rum, tobacco, arrowroot, cut flowers and fruit, exported by both groups.
The EU will also have to square its own growers in Spain's Canary Islands and France's Caribbean territories, as well as Portugal, Greece and Cyprus.
The EU gets a "peace clause" promising no further WTO litigation -- though whether this takes effect from when the deal is signed or when the EU formally registers its new tariffs at the WTO has been contentious.
The deal will be embedded in any future Doha agreement, and there will be arrangements for dealing with the possibility that Doha never comes off.
