The United States yesterday lifted punitive financial sanctions on European Union imports, in keeping with an agreement struck in April that ended a bitter nine-year dispute over trade in bananas, the US trade representative said.

The sanctions imposed two years ago affected a range of EU products worth $191.4 million (#236.73 million). "This process represents a serious effort by the United States and the European Union to manage our differences in a spirit of mutual respect and understanding," US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said. The banana dispute centered on US complaints that concessions offered by the EU to African, Caribbean and Pacific banana exporters harmed the interests of US multinationals like Chiquita and Del Monte that grow bananas in Latin America.

The World Trade Organization on two occasions upheld the US position and called on EU authorities to change their importing procedures.