RP won't drop trade case versus Australia

Agriculture Undersecretary Segfredo R. Serrano stressed that the Philippines will not drop its trade complaint against Australia in spite of Australia’s recent assurance that it is moving forward on resolving the biosecurity check on Philippine exports of bananas and pineapples to Australia.

In an interview with The STAR, Serrano commented that “they (Australia) have a better record than the World Trade Organization (WTO) in meeting deadlines.”

Serrano pointed out that the trade dispute has been going on for almost a decade.

“We filed the dispute a long time ago in 2001. It has dragged on since then,” Serrano pointed out.

Thus, even with the recent release of the final draft Import Risk Analysis (IRA) report by Biosecurity Australia, the Philippines will not withdraw it’s still pending trade complaint against Australia, Serrano said.

Biosecurity Australia (BA) recently released the final draft IRA on Philippine Cavendish bananas.

The IRA report finally recommended that Philippine Cavendish bananas could enter Australia, if the Philippines meets strict risk- management measures for seven groups of pests of quarantine concern such as Moko, Black Sigatoka and Freckle.

The BA recommended that only exports from areas that demonstrate low prevalence of pests be allowed.

It is also requiring registration of export blocks and inspections to detect the presence of any diseases by Australian quarantine inspectors.

The BA also requires that Philippine banana exports must undergo disinfection and fungicide spraying.

Philippine banana exports must also secure pre-clearance arrangements with the presence and involvement of Australian inspectors in the Philippines.

These pre-clearance arrangement include applying quarantine conditions in the field, in packing houses, and in auditing and verification by Australian inspectors of systems and processes used by the Philippines to certify banana exports.