Aussies call apple boycott plan 'childish'

Plans by New Zealand apple-growers to boycott Australian produce are regarded by orchardists across the Tasman as childish, says a Queensland farming leader.

Australia has for decades used a perceived disease risk as a non-tariff trade barrier against New Zealand apples.

They were blocked from Australian markets in 1921, after an outbreak of the pipfruit disease fireblight in Auckland in 1919.

New Zealand has fought a campaign for access since 1986, and has shown scientific evidence that clean, ripe apples will not spread the fireblight bacteria.

The present bid for apples to enter Australia began in January 1999. But Biosecurity Australia has blocked imports while it conducts a second import risk assessment on whether there is a risk of Australian fruit contracting fireblight.

About 800 orchardists from throughout New Zealand are planning to rally outside the Australian High Commission in Wellington on Wednesday.

Australian Access Apple Group spokesman Rupert Ryan said many of the growers would travel hundreds of kilometres to take part in the demonstration.

But a leader of the Australian industry's fireblight taskforce, grower Ugo Thomasel, from southeastern Queensland, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation yesterday he was unimpressed by the New Zealanders' lobbying.

"They've been allowed to participate in our process the whole way. They've been included, they've never been excluded," he said.

"We don't have fireblight, we don't want to get fireblight and they need to accept that - that we're going to ... try and scrutinise any protocol that's been put up to make sure we never get fireblight."

A New Zealand scientist found fireblight in the Adelaide botanic gardens in South Australia in 1997.

In New Zealand, Trade Liberalisation Network executive director Suse Reynolds said the Australian ban had been around for decades and "every decade the grounds for the ban have weakened".

"Today none exist. The ban is no more than a reflection of the embarrassing political clout Australian apple-growers wield."

Ms Reynolds said the trade ban was a blot on Australia's otherwise impeccable credentials in the World Trade Organisation.

The New Zealand Government's decision last week to raise the issue with Australia in the WTO was not the most serious step the Government could take.

"This step is a final warning shot," she said. "The real crunch would come if the New Zealand Government were to initiate the WTO's formal dispute resolution process."

- NZPA

* Australia blocked New Zealand apples in 1921 after an outbreak of the pipfruit disease fireblight in Auckland in 1919.

* Independent studies commissioned by the Australian industry claim the introduction of fireblight would destroy the pear industry and severely damage apple crops, costing Australia A$1 billion ($1.3 billion) in the first six years.

* New Zealand growers say clean, ripe apples will not spread the bacteria.

* In a case between the United States and Japan, the World Trade Organisation ruled that mature apples cannot transmit the disease, meaning they cannot be banned.