GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) - Eastern Caribbean leaders will have to reach a common position on banana export prices before the World Trade Organisation meets in Hong Kong this month, an official statement said Thursday. The WTO ruled in August and again in October that proposed preferential European Union banana tariffs were in violation of global trade regulations. Latin American officials have long complained that EU banana import rules favour Caribbean and African producers. The Dec 13-18 WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong could be "the setting for a major showdown on bananas", said the nine-member Organisation of American States, in a statement. Four of the six major banana exporters in the Caribbean - Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent - are members of the subregional group. They and the other two, Jamaica and Suriname, are members of the 15-member Caribbean Community, which has expressed dismay at the WTO rulings. Central and Latin American bananas are produced on larger plantations and with lower labour costs than Caribbean bananas. Caribbean producers say that, without higher tariffs than the WTO admits, their bananas would not be competitive. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com