This page updated on 17 Sep 2003
FIGHTS BACK to protect clean salmon industry
see Previous articleWhen, in July 1999, the Australian Government backed away from its 24-year ban on uncooked salmon imports, a State quarantine ban was soon applied by the Government of Tasmania with unanimous support of its Parliament. This brought Australia into contravention of the World Trade Organisation's ruling. Tasmania has conducted its own Import Risk Analysis on the issue (available below). DOCUMENTS WTO panels News Items Tasmanian Parlt Senate inquiry Biodiversity Miscellaneous Links
WTO DISPUTE SETTLEMENT PANEL DECISIONS
There have been two WTO Dispute Settlement Panel decisions and several resultant appeals since 1998 on the issue of Australia's attitude to salmon imports. ( See Chronology of preceding events .) The most recent appeals were initiated by Canada, resulting in a ruling announced in July 1999, overturning the 24-year ban on fresh salmon imports. Australia then agreed to consider measures short of a total ban, resulting in proposals for heading, gilling, gutting and packaging which would in theory remove the parts of the fish most likely to spread disease. In respect to salmon from New Zealand, there would not even be a requirement to remove the head and gills. [Australia's revised Import Risk Analysis was produced to an "accelerated timetable" (of 3 months) to address WTO demands. Its general conclusions appear in Chapter 9 of the IRA.]. [See an account of some salmonid diseases ]
This was seen as a big concession. However, it was not enough for the WTO. The second WTO panel decision, released in February 2000, rejected these requirements as too restrictive for exporters. It also decided that the Tasmanian ban was unjustified since it lacked a formal scientific basis. (Tasmania released its import risk analysis justifying the ban on Feb 23, soon after public release of the second panel's report.). The following (Jan 2000) letter from Environment Minister David Llewellyn states Tasmania's position and indicates that the Australian Government had not formally reacted to the Animal Health Amendment Bill before the WTO Dispute Settlement Panel had concluded its December sitting.11 January, 2000
Dear Mr Jenkins
Thank you for your letter of 20 December 1999 concerning amendments to Tasmania's Animal Health Act and any reaction by the Australian Government.
The December 1999 amendments to the Animal Health Act passed through both Houses of the Tasmanian Parliament with unanimous support and without amendment. The amendments received Royal Assent on 15 December 1999 and commenced on that day. The second reading speech and debates on the Animal Health Amendment Bill are available on the Tasmanian Government's web-site.
Tasmanian Government officials met with senior officers of the Commonwealth Government in November 1999 to advise Tasmania's position on fish quarantine in preparation for the World Trade Organisation dispute settlement meetings in Geneva in December 1999. We have not received any reaction so far from the Commonwealth Government to Tasmania's amended Animal Health Act.
Tasmania is concerned that the Commonwealth unilaterally determines a level of quarantine protection "appropriate for Australia" without regard to the Sovereignty of States and Territories in such matters. Also, in a country as large and diverse as Australia, the suitability of a "one size fits all" set of quarantine measures is highly questionable given that the Sanitary [and] Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement requires that countries adopt least trade restrictive measures. The need for different quarantine measures in different parts of Australia is quite apparent when considering precautions necessary to prevent establishment of salmonid diseases in Australia. The SPS Agreement provides specifically for countries to recognise and take account of different circumstances in parts of both an exporting and importing country when considering measures necessary to prevent spread of disease,
Thank you for your interest in this matter.
Yours sincerely
David Llewellyn MHA
Minister for Primary Industries, Water and Environment
[Tasmania]
