Agriculture: Bar lowered on quarantine once again
The feeling among many farmers is that, within the latitude the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) and Biosecurity Australia have to determine what animal and plant materials enter Australia, these organisations interpret the rules in the direction of the free trade ideology rather than in the direction of protecting the nation’s agricultural and environmental interests. Under WTO and international phytosanitary agreement rules, a country has the right to set its quarantine bar as high (or low) a level as it chooses, so long as the rules are applied consistently across environmental and agricultural sectors. The WTO also requires that any…