Apple growers say WTO move not enough

New Zealand orchardists say the Government's move to take the trans-Tasman apple dispute to the World Trade Organisation is not enough.

"Although it's a step in the right direction, the announcement does not meet industry expectations," said a spokesman for the Hawke's Bay based Australia Action Apple Group (AAAG) Phil Alison.

"We want the Government to do more".

"Our battle to gain access has taken 85 years and it has been locked up in committees and process -- we've run out of patience."

The decision by Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton to put the issue on the agenda of the WTO sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) committee had only made New Zealand orchardists more determined to protest the Australian non-tariff trade barrier, Mr Alison said.

"The Government has only asked for the issue to be inscribed on one of the WTO's committee agendas.

"It is not the WTO action we asked for and apple growers are still calling for Australia to be formally taken to the WTO.

"The apple industry is united and will continue its planned protest actions including a march to Parliament and the Australian Embassy next Wednesday and consumer-led boycotts".

Australia has banned imports of New Zealand apples for more than 80 years, using the fireblight bacterial disease as a non-tariff trade barrier.

New Zealand growers have said their apples could cream between $20 million and $40 million a year from trans-Tasman exports, if they can get access.

Australia has refused to lift the ban despite a 1981 free trade pact between the countries and a ruling by the WTO that fireblight cannot be transmitted from one place to another on clean, mature fruit.

Mr Alison said the apple industry needed the issue resolved immediately and was tired of Australia's double standards on free trade.

Mr Sutton said yesterday that the formal "inscription" of the dispute on a WTO committee agenda was significant, because New Zealand had never previously raised an issue with Australia in the WTO.

New Zealand had previously taken only three cases to the SPS committee at the WTO.

"In all three cases we have made excellent progress without having to go to the next step of dispute settlement," he said.

"We hope to do so with Australia".

- NZPA