A three-member team of WTO arbitrators said the EU's forthcoming revised banana regime, including an import duty of 230 euros (279 dollars) per tonne, would not allow "total market access" to trade partners.

Nine Latin American countries -- Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela -- had challenged the EU at the WTO in March and April. They welcomed the decision Monday.

"It doesn't surprise us. The arbitrators came to the conclusion that a tariff of 230 euros per tonne is not compatible with the EU's obligations to the WTO," Costa Rica's ambassador to the WTO, Ronald Saborio, told AFP.

The ruling said the EU's planned change to its banana system "would not result in at least maintaining total market access for MFN (Most Favoured Nation) banana suppliers."

MFN refers to the WTO's basic principle of non-discrimination between trading partners.

Meanwhile, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it would try to negotiate a deal with the nine Latin American countries, and signaled it could appeal the WTO ruling if an agreement were not struck.

Costa Rico's Saborio said the EU's planned replacement for its controversial quota system next year would be discriminatory for banana producers that are not part of the 25-nation bloc or the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) nations that have preferential, tariff-free access to European markets.

"One can't maintain concerns about the EU and ACP to the detriment of Latin American countries," he added.

The Latin American exporters had argued they would have no chance of maintaining their market share in the EU with the planned levy weighing on the prices of their bananas.

The challenge had opened a new chapter in the banana war.

In the late 1990s, Brussels, Washington, which was backing US-based fruit multinationals, and some Latin American countries were locked in a bruising confrontation over the EU's banana barriers, which combined quotas and tariffs.