Environmentally friendly nappies are the latest product caught up in a trade dispute between Europe and the United States.

Shop owner Mitch Alexander has learnt the cotton nappies she sells will soon cost hundreds of pounds more to import than disposable ones because of a new 29.5 per cent import tax.

The mother-of-three has been selling traditional nappies for five years, since the birth of her first daughter Mina-Mae.

She was shocked to discover they have been targeted in the latest salvo of a tax war that has been raging for more than ten years.

Disposable nappies will not attract the tariff.

Mrs Alexander said: "I just think it's crazy. All this time we are being told to reduce our waste but now I feel like we are being penalised for caring about the environment."

From next March, the duty on importing cotton nappy covers will rise from 12.5 per cent to 29.5 per cent.

The duty on nappies, along with 2,500 other products, has been imposed by Brussels as part of the escalating trade row which began in in 1993 when the US accused Europe of favouring Caribbean bananas over its own.

The US complained to the World Trade Organisation and drew up a list of European products, which also included folded cartons and various bath products, on which it would impose a 100 per cent import tax.

The EU has now hit back but Mrs Alexander believes it has chosen the wrong target.

She says she is determined to cover the costs herself so parents don't switch to disposables.

She said: "We don't want our customers to end up paying more so we are going to swallow the increases but we worry other importers won't do the same.

"People start to get lazy. Even if it's just for a couple of weeks they get into the routine of using disposables.

"If you change your baby six or seven times a day, that makes at least one bin liner of rubbish a week."

Mrs Alexander's shop, Yummies, in Bond Street, Brighton, opened in October and has become a favourite with parents who prefer her environmentally friendly products.

She sells a nappy "system" that comes in two parts. A piece of cotton is folded into a square pad and kept in place by a cover.

Mrs Alexander says the covers she imports from the US are by far the best.

She said: "It's not just a case of going to another country to get the covers made.

"We've tried other manufacturers but they've not done the job.

"They're just not comfortable enough."

Mrs Alexander hopes the latest tax hike is a problem that can be rectified.

She said: "It's one of the many products targeted so maybe if we shout about it we can change something"

A spokesman for the European Commission said: "The EU only imposed tariffs on US goods after the World Trade Organisation found the US guilty of breaking international trade laws.

"This problem should not be blamed on the EU."

Dr Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP for the South-East, said: "Imposing a tax on reusable nappies while disposable nappies are tax-free is clearly ludicrous.

"This is one of the effects of large trading blocks protecting their interests and, as usual, local communities suffer."