Australia bans Asian shrimps

Australia has banned the import of raw prawns from Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand, a directive released by the country's import regulator said.

The ban on China and Asean countries may turn out to be a boon for Indian shrimp exporters, as currently the country's exports to Australia are negligible.

Announcing that the ban would be effective next month onwards, Biosecurity Australia (BA) said more stringent environmental safety tests would be required for importing prawn meat and cutlets. Australia banned imports after a survey conducted by the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service had found that 31 per cent of a sample of prawns, fish, crabs and eels from the Asian countries contained low levels of antibiotics and anti-microbial agents.

The residue was not desirable although it posed no direct risk to human health. The Australian Agriculture minister released the preliminary results of the survey last week and later the ban was announced. The move of the Australian government to introduce quarantine requirements in last June are non-tariff barriers to trade, aimed at protecting the $51 million domestic industry from the $2 billion import industry, according to Thai officials.

China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Phillippines have already brought the issue before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute panel and Thailand would soon join the group.

Thailand is joining the Asean nations in the wake of aborted discussions with BA recently. BA will introduce the new measures for prawn imports from September onwards, by which all raw prawn imports would be banned and additional environmental safety tests will be required for prawn meat and cutlets.

The WTO dispute panel will consider the issue in its meeting scheduled in October. Thailand believes that the Australian decision was onerous and scientifically unsound.

It is likely that the Asean nations will seek compensation for losses due to ban on import.

If Australia loses the dispute at WTO it may face compensation payments of $500 million for every year the restrictions lasts. India had also sought WTO intervention over the anti-dumping duty and customs bond requirements imposed by the US Department of Commerce.

The final hearing of the case was held during the last week of July in Geneva and verdict is expected soon. Ecuador had won its case on anti-dumping duty and the US administration had forced to withdraw the duty recently.