Reading the International Fruit Company Saga More than 50 Years Later: At the Intersection of the ‘Common’ Market, Agricultural Policy and Commercial policy

This paper analyses three historical cases of the Court of Justice that form part of what is referred to here as the International Fruit Company saga, namely joined cases 41-47/70 (IFC I), 51-54/71 (IFC II) and 21-24/72 (IFC III). In IFC II, the Court conceptualised the notion of quantitative restrictions and measures having equivalent effect in the common market, whereas IFC III dealt with the possibility of reviewing the legality of EEC acts in light of GATT rules. This paper argues that a combined reading of these cases in their historical context illustrates other consequences they produced in the development of EEC/EU law. First, the judgments clarified the relationship between the objectives of different EEC/EU policy areas, especially the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Commercial Policy. Second, they contributed to determining that different levels of liberalisation of cross-border exchanges were to be achieved in intra- and extra-Community exchanges, while later case-law elaborated the rationale for this differentiation. Lastly, by connecting the saga with current developments, this paper posits that the reading of EU competences and trade policy objectives outlined in the International Fruit Company saga continues to be relevant. Indeed, it allows for the adoption of measures that, in different ways, seek to reconcile trade liberalisation with concerns about the protection of EU agricultural production.