NZ Pushes For Negotiated Settlement In Apples Row

The Trans Tasman Political Letter says NZ is looking for a way to settle the apple export row at Government level, after NZ’s WTO victory. It notes NZ may have won its case in the WTO court against Australia’s barriers on the sale of NZ apples in the Australian market, but no-one on this side of the Tasman believes the battle has been finally won.

As Trans Tasman reported earlier this week, The WTO panel has comprehensively rejected the Australian argument, and its use of quarantine regulation as a de facto trade barrier. Clearly the issue should now be settled at the political level, and both Govts may have thought it a good idea to keep the WTO report under wraps until after the Federal election.

Trans Tasman says each Govt received the interim report at the end of last month, and Canberra could be wary of unleashing the fury of Australian apple growers in the run-up to the election. However with a Labor Govt in power, the influence of the apple growers mainly in seats held by Liberal or National MPs may be less dominant. Theoretically, the Rudd Govt should be swayed more by the interests of consumers. The NZ Govt has been looking at how to negotiate a settlement, based on the WTO’s panel interim ruling.

Trans Tasman says Trade Minister Tim Groser is expected to explore what shape a fair and final resolution could take when he talks with his counterpart Simon Crean on the sidelines of the Cairns Group meeting in Punta del Este early next week.

However Trans Tasman adds NZ knows from past experience, even when the science has been overwhelmingly conclusive, the Australian bureaucracy has always found a way to frustrate an outcome in NZ’s favour. With the full weight of the WTO swinging behind NZ, Australia will risk making itself a laughing stock preaching free trade out of one corner of its mouth while it practices protectionism out of the other.

ENDS

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