Australian apple and pear growers are confident the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) will rule in their favour over the
importation of New Zealand apples.
Australian growers have said the bacterial disease fireblight
could be spread by New Zealand fruit if it is allowed into
Australia.
New Zealand scientists have shown the disease is unlikely to
be spread by ripe, clean fruit.
A hearing was held in Geneva last week to decide if Australia
has breached WTO rules through placing too-strict
restrictions on importing New Zealand apples.
Growers on this side of the Tasman have said that the
constraints would make any exports uneconomic, and act as a
non-tariff trade barrier.
The chairman of the Australian industry's "fireblight
taskforce", John Corboy, told the ABC today that the WTO
panel was likely to make a final decision early next year.
"We believe that New Zealand has an extremely difficult, if
not impossible, case to prove that Australia hasn't
used...credible science in supporting its role on this," he
said.
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