Lou raised the apple racket.
This is today¹s news in New Zealand Rural News.
Apple exporters not holding their breath
by Sudesh Kissun
7/2/2006
PM Helen Clark is expected to raise the apple access issue with John Howard
this week.
Apple exporters will not be holding their breath when Helen Clark meets her
Australian counterpart in Canberra this week.
While the bilateral meeting is expected to touch on New Zealand apples,
Pipfruit New Zealand chairman Ian Palmer is not expecting any good news.
Palmer says he expects Australia to continue to ³roadblock² import of New
Zealand apples by saying a risk still exists.
³While it is good to put government-to-government pressure, we are basing
our case on science and saying there is no risk of fireblight,² he says.
³But Australians have a pet answer that their modelling shows risks exist.²
Clark will meet John Howard in Canberra on February 8 to ³review a range of
international, regional and bilateral issues².
Biosecurity Australia released a draft import risk analysis last year but
the rules were so tough New Zealand growers say exports would be uneconomic.
Pipfruit New Zealand has until the end of March to make submissions.
However, Palmer says Biosecurity Australia has refused to release the
modelling used to compile the report.
³We need to study their modelling so we can understand it,² he says.
³We do not want to second-guess and get our submission wrong.
³Ironically we had to release confidential information to Biosecurity
Australia.²
The World Trade Organisation has accepted international scientific evidence
that mature apples cannot transmit fireblight.
However Biosecurity Australia has a mathematical formula which says a risk
still exists.
Palmer says Biosecurity Australia¹s refusal to release the modelling is part
of the ploy to continue the 84-year ban.
Agriculture Minister Jim Anderton says a task force of officials and
scientists from Biosecurity New Zealand and Pipfruit NZ is working on the
submission.
Addressing Pipfruit NZ¹s annual conference last month, Anderton expressed
disappointment with the Australian draft report.
³There are serious concerns about the conditions placed on our apples. Some
of them are too onerous,² he says.
Anderton says the Government will continue its unprecedented case against
Australia at the World Trade Organisation sanitary and phytosanitary
committee.
³The delays are frustrating for the government and for the industry,² he
says.
³There is still some distance to go before it's done. But it is an issue
where justice is on our side.
³We are in the right, and we are committed to pressing our cause. The day
when we prevail will come.²
Best wishes,
Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
New Zealand
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