The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia) | By ALISON REHN | March 11, 2004
CLOSING a loophole in the quarantine laws that allows 4500 weeds to be imported may not be possible if the Australia-US free trade agreement is passed, the Democrats said.
Democrats agriculture spokes man John Cherry said the Australia-US FTA stipulated that if Australia wanted to amend quarantine arrangements, it would have to consult the US first.
"My concern is that any work, or attempts by government to close the loopholes or toughen quarantine standards on potential imports of invasive species, will now be the subject of possible review under the US FTA," Senator Cherry said.
However, Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said the text of the FTA enabled Australians to see for themselves that it posed "no threat to established quarantine procedures".
"Australian can read for themselves that the agreement explicitly respects Australia's rights under the World Trade Organisation to determine our own level of risk, to conduct our own scientific risk assessment and to set quarantine policies based on science," he said.
"The AUSFTA contains no trade-off of our conservative approach to quarantine."
However, Mr Truss acknowledged there would be more discussion on quarantine issues between Australia and the US.
Senator Cherry said the word ing of the FTA "makes it clear the US will now have the capacity to have considerable influence over our quarantine measures."The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia):
