Quarantine double standards

But all this, however bad, is not "double standards", so please read on.

Next year this same sanitary and phytosanitary risk procedure will be applied to the introduction into Australia of New Zealand apples, a country that currently has an active "endemic fire blight disease", and of course Australia has no history of the disease. Once again I expect that "minimising the negative trade effects" will be a driving force and it is interesting, if not annoying, that this negative effect is not rated against the potential losses to our own primary producers, rather than an acceptable sanitary and phytosanitary risk set at an "appropriate level".

Some are suggesting that the importation of New Zealand apples into Australia is a “done deal” and it is only the impending Federal election that is holding up the approval:so deciduous fruit growers in Australia can expect the same financial mayhem that has been visited upon the horse racing and equine industries.

But here comes the crunch. For some years the United States has had a devastating and as yet undiagnosed disease in its bee colonies. The disease is referred to as "Total Hive Collapse" and that's just what happens. There is a hive of bees one day and absolutely none the next.

The cause has been variously blamed on genetically modified crops, high frequency radio waves caused probably by mobile phones or simply the fact that bees in America are travelled so extensively they are simply worn out. However, no one really knows.

Since the Americans use their bees intensively to pollinate crops (the US industry is estimated to be $19 billion annually), Australian bees have been imported to try to keep up bee numbers and so food production. So far this methodology has worked rather well.

But now it seems someone has suggested the “total hive collapse syndrome” is caused by a virus that is carried by Australian bees. There is of course a local American queen bee producing industry and no doubt the importation of Australian bees is keeping the US price down. There is absolutely no evidence that imported Australian bees are the cause of total hive collapse in America and since all our bee hives seem to be doing quite well the likelihood is low to nil.

But there is serious talk that next year a ban will be placed on the importation of Australian bees into the USA. If this happens, and at this time it seems very likely, then not only will it expose an enormous double standard as to what is and what is not an acceptable "sanitary and phytosanitary risk", which begs the question as to just what it is that Australian assessors are missing and the American ones are picking up on.

It could be suggested that the best way to solve this whole disease import problem would be for us to import the American "acceptable risk" assessors and, export the Australian assessors to America. But then again the US may well deem this to be an unacceptable risk, and based on history you could hardly blame them.