Brussels, 21/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has stated that negotiations with Australia have made solid headway on the quarantine regime, which has been contested by the EU, and applied by Canberra to imports of agricultural products. This is the result of the meeting of trade experts of the EU (the 133 committee) on 10 June. According to the Commission's representative at this meeting, an amicable solution could be found in July. If not, the EU will relaunch the complaint it took to the WTO a year ago against Australia (EUROPE of 30 August 2003).
According to the Commission, Australia has made serious efforts on recent months to answer the Member States' concerns, particularly by bringing in a new system for imports of Dutch tomatoes and pork meat. The Australian authorities are soon to adopt a new system for citrus fruit from Italy. At the end of April, Canberra announced its intentions of bringing in: a risk-assessment procedure for imports of chicken meat; -more transparent rules for fruit and vegetables; -new modalities to reduce waiting times for authorisations of access for products.
A panel was set up at the WTO on 7 November 2003 to deal with the EU's complaint against the Australian quarantine system, but its composition has still not been decided upon. At the same time, the Commission and Canberra are trying to reach an amicable solution.