Australia to import irradiated Philippine fruits July 15, 2003 Philippine Daily Inquirer Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. and Cynthia D. Balana OCA Comment: The Australia-New Zealand food standards agency last year permitted irradiation of tropical fruits for export. As we predicted, this new policy has also opened the Australia/New Zealand market to irradiated tropical fruits from Southeast Asia. (Under the World Trade Organization rules, if one country uses irradiation, it cannot bar imports of the same irradiated products from another country.) PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo reported yesterday that the Philippines and Australia have moved a step closer toward patching up their long-standing dispute on the restricted entry of Philippine mangoes, bananas and pineapples to Australia. But Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo remained skeptical on whether the Australian government would live up to its end of the bargain to ease up on its phyto-sanitary standards that had prevented Philippine fruits from being sold on Australian supermarket shelves. In a briefing following the two countries' bilateral discussions, Ms Macapagal said the Philippines and Australian have "moved forward in reaching a mutually acceptable precautionary measure" that would finally allow Philippine fruits to pass through Australia's customs. "I am grateful to Prime Minister John Howard for his very positive response to our proposal to further open up the Australian market for our products, especially the agricultural products coming from Mindanao," the President said. Howard said his government was looking at ways of improving access of Philippine agriculture products to Australia which he hoped would be resolved in an "intelligent and cooperative" manner. Howard said: "Our quarantine measures are based on science but others view them differently. But if we can establish a mechanism to bring all these issues together, there will be a better outcome for everybody." Ms Macapagal concurred that Australia's phyto-sanitary measures were not "trade barriers" but "scientific precautions." In an interview, Lorenzo said that Australia has agreed to fumigate Philippine pineapples in Australia but only with nephyl bromide, which Philippine farmers claimed was toxic and debilitates their harvest. Lorenzo said the Philippines would push for the use of an alternative fumigant, hydrocyanic acid, which was acceptable to other importing countries like New Zealand and Japan. Lorenzo said that the Philippines also pressed the Australian government for the release of the risk analysis report on Philippines bananas that it was supposed to release a year ago. He said the two agreed to resolve the issue bilaterally rather than proceed to the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement board. Lorenzo said that Australia agreed to accept mangoes grown outside Guimaras Island and to open up more fruit imports after they have gone through an irradiation process if the US has made this process acceptable to their standards. Aside from lowering its quarantine standards, Lorenzo said Australia has also committed to help fruit growing farmers in Mindanao through financial and technical aid. Meantime, the Philippines has agreed to import $ 33 million worth of coal annually from Australia in exchange for increased investments in local coal mining and offshore oil and gas exploration projects by businessmen from Down Under. Ms Macapagal yesterday announced that the state-run National Power Corp. has agreed to buy 975,000 metric tons of coal annually for the next two years from Australia on a competitive bidding basis. She said the agreement, which was meant to diversify the country's energy sources, should "revive a trade that has been dying down over the years between Australia and the Philippines." Energy Secretary Vincent Perez explained that the Australian coal deal was meant to ensure a steady supply to coal-fired plants in the country such as those in Masinloc, Sual, Pagbilao, Mauban and Toledo. Perez said the country did not have enough coal to meet the requirements of power plants and even the small amount produced from local coal mines did not meet the quality required by the users. During bilateral discussions yesterday morning, Perez said the Philippine panel urged the Australians to encourage their coal miners and wildcatters to put their money into the development of mining and oil and gas exploration industries in the country. "Its not a condition to the coal purchase agreement, but we have made it very clear to them (Australian government) that we would like it to be there as part of a reciprocity agreement,'' Perez said. Perez, a former investment banker, said the Australian officials responded favorably to the Philippines' request to profit from the long experience of Australia in coal mining and oil and gas exploration. In Congress, House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla yesterday asked the visiting Australian prime minister to review his government's trade policies with the Philippines, which has become a dumping ground for Australian products. Padilla said this has resulted in gross imbalance in favor of Australia to the detriment of Philippine products. "Correcting the one-sided agricultural trade will boost Philippine agriculture and the competitiveness of Philippine products," he said.