`Aussie rules' hit NZ apples

REBECCA HARPER
Angry Hawke's Bay growers say Australia has blindly ignored World Trade Organisation (WTO) rulings and international scientific evidence in continuing to keep out New Zealand apples.
After 84 years of "forbidden fruit" it was the end of the line for New Zealand apple growers when the final Import Risk Analysis was released yesterday, denying meaningful access to export to Australia.
In a joint statement yesterday, Pipfruit New Zealand (PNZ) and the Australian Apple Action Group (AAAG) called on the Government to take immediate WTO action against Australia, as already promised by New Zealand Government ministers.
Trade Minister Phil Goff said this morning that he would consider taking a complaint to the WTO.
"The WTO is an option, it's not something New Zealand particularly wants to do, but it may be the only option left," he said.
"It usually takes two to three years, at least, before you can get the matter dealt with."
Mr Goff said he would meet Pipfruit NZ (PNZ) next week to closely examine Biosecurity Australia's 600-page document.
Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers president Leon Stallard said Australia had always looked after its own interests and producers, "at the moment they're trying to bring stonefruit into New Zealand and they'll probably succeed".
"They play by different rules, they always have," Mr Stallard said.
He could not understand why the Government would not take action, given that there were no more facts to consider.
"What more do they need to consider, they have all the facts.
"The information is already there and the decision should already have been made to lodge a complaint with the WTO," he said.
Mr Stallard said it was frustrating that the Government was so reluctant to acknowledge the importance of growers, especially after all the time and effort they had put in to fighting the ban.
He said growers could only argue and fight on the facts, and it was Australia that was the problem.
AAAG spokesman Rupert Ryan said the report was stringent and archaic.
Australia had resorted to a "trade barrier by any other name" by imposing prohibitive conditions and excessive costs, making it totally uneconomic for New Zealand growers to export apples.
He said growers had other markets available to them, but exporting to Australia would have created a significant local market.
Mr Ryan said growers had wasted two years waiting for the outcome, time that could have been used by the Government to approach the WTO.
"We've wasted our time in tough negotiations with Australia and they're determined to keep us out," he said.
He said growers would be disappointed, especially when New Zealand had recently taken Australian honey and bananas.
"It's a one-way street - they don't reciprocate at all.
"I'm quite sure that in Australian minds free trade means export only."
Mr Ryan said that all avenues had been exhausted and there was no choice but to start lobbying the Government to go to the WTO immediately.
"I'd like to see us there before christmas, we should have been there two years ago, when we saw the last biosecurity report."
Twyford orchardist Geoff Nicoll said the result was not unexpected: "I certainly wasn't hanging my hat on the result."
He said the only option now was the WTO, but it would be a long process.
PNZ chairman Ian Palmer said the industry would meet Government officials as soon as possible to urge WTO proceedings. Frustration was felt at both the process and outcome of Biosecurity Australia's work.
"It smacks of political science, not biological science."
They hoped the Government had the intestinal fortitude to follow through with what was now a necessary process WTO action, Mr Palmer added.