CANBERRA, March 21 (Reuters) - The Australian island state of Tasmania said on Tuesday it would defy the national government and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by refusing to lift its ban on Canadian salmon imports.
Tasmanian Agriculture Minister David Llewellyn said a national government decision not to appeal against a WTO ruling allowing the imports was a loss for Tasmania and Australia.
"Those products are not going to come into Tasmania because we will not lift our provisions that we have in place preventing them," Llewellyn told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
"That is not the way to run a quarantine arrangement," he said, adding that Canada had some 22 fish diseases that currently did not exist in Tasmania.
Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile defended the government's decision, saying Australia had won stringent quarantine restrictions as part of the ruling and an appeal might jeopardise those, leaving the country in a worse position.
"There were only limited grounds for appeal and to do so would have invited a cross appeal which could have re-opened the many positive findings in Australia's favour," Vaile said in a statement.
He said the WTO had approved 10 out of 11 quarantine measures which exceeded the international standard.
"The organisation has in effect said that we can justifiably have the strictest quarantine approach of any WTO member for salmon and trout," he said.
The national government has been negotiating with Tasmanian authorities to try to bring the state's restrictions in line with national policy.
Vaile told Australian radio that if Tasmania failed to lift its ban in the next few weeks, Canada could go ahead with retaliatory measures against a range of Australian products.
"It is possible. It is a very grey area -- we haven't come across this circumstance before," he said.
A WTO panel last month found Australia's measures on Canadian salmon imports violated international trade rules. The ruling was the third since 1998 against Australia's partial ban -- in force since 1975 -- on fresh, chilled and frozen Canadian salmon.:
