Senator Bob Collins asked the Minister for Primary Industries and Energy, upon notice, on 10 April 1997:

(1) Are any of the recommendations made by the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee regarding the proposed importation of cooked chicken meat in breach of World Trade Organisation rules; if so: (a) which recommendations; and (b) what is the nature of the breach.

(2) How many times has the imported cooked chicken meat technical working group met; (b) when did those meetings take place; and (c) what is the membership of the working group.

(3) Can copies of the minutes from those meetings be provided.

(4) What variations were made to the draft protocol as a result of the recommendations from the committee and the discussions between the industry and the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS).

(5) If certain recommendations were rejected, what was the basis for the rejections.

(6) Do the industry members of the technical working group support the redrafted protocol, if so, on what date did the industry members agree to the redrafted protocol.

(7) Do most countries that import chicken require area certification from avian diseases as a precondition for allowing product into their domestic market.

(8) Is AQIS recommending to the Minister that such a condition be applied to those countries seeking to export chicken meat to Australia; if not, why not.

(9) (a) On how many occasions has the Government/industry working group looking at the economic impact of imported chicken meat met; (b) when did those meetings take place; and (c) what is the membership of the working group.

(10) Can copies of the minutes of all meetings of the group be provided.

(11) (a) Has the group finalised an economic adjustment package for the domestic chicken industry if imported product is given access to the Australian market; (b) is the package supported by the industry representatives on the working group; and (c) what is the membership of the working group.

(12) When will the further scientific tests, announced by the Minister, be undertaken.

(13) (a) What role did the industry play in design of this further testing and did industry endorse the procedures to be followed; (b) when did those consultations take place; (c) how have these tests been designed so as to reflect commercial reality in line with a key recommendation of the committee that further testing `should be conducted in conditions that are as close as possible to commercial processing conditions'; and (d) when will they be completed.

(14) (a) Where will these tests be undertaken; and (b) will Dr Dennis Alexander be directly involved; if so, what will be the exact nature of his involvement.

(15) Is Dr Alexander currently working as a consultant to the European Union or any of its members; if so, which country is, or which countries are, employing Dr Alexander.

(16) Does Dr Alexander's work involve assistance to promote the export of chicken meat; if so, does not that consultancy present a conflict of interest for Dr Alexander in relation to the work he is doing for AQIS.

(17) Has AQIS inspected any of the plants from which chicken might be sourced if approval to import the product is granted; if so: (a) where were the plants, (b) how many were inspected; (c) who undertook the inspections; and (d) what was the result of those inspections.

(18) Does AQIS plan to inspect plants from all countries seeking to export meat to Australia in line with the committee recommendation; if not why not.

Senator Parer —The Minister for Primary Industries and Energy has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) The WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures sets out rights and obligations of WTO members in relation to the application of quarantine controls to protect human, animal and plant health. Whether the Senate Committee's recommendations on technical issues would be consistent with the Agreement is a matter for judgement in the context of consideration of all aspects of AQIS's risk assessment on cooked chicken meat imports. The legal conformity of the AQIS position on this issue with WTO rules can be determined only through the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.

The Committee's recommendation that "the most appropriate assistance measure available for the government's consideration would be the introduction of appropriate safeguard action to allow the imposition of a tariff or quota restriction on importation on a temporary and reducing basis" could only be taken up by Australia in accordance with its obligations as a Member of the WTO.

With respect to the possible imposition of import quotas, this could only be done in accordance with the provisions of Article XIX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994) and the WTO Agreement on Safeguards. Under the Agreement on Safeguards and Article XIX of GATT 1994, safeguard action against imports may be taken if, as a result of unforseen developments, there has been an increase in the level of imports of a product as to cause or threaten to cause serious injury to domestic producers of the like or directly competitive product. A finding of serious injury requires a formal investigation, with the process being done according to published procedures with a public inquiry and a published report.

Investigations cannot be initiated until there is a circumstance of increased quantities of imports, absolute or relative to domestic production. That is, while measures can be imposed on the basis of threat of serious injury, they cannot be imposed on the basis of threat of imports. Therefore, the Government could not decide in advance of any imports being permitted to introduce an "appropriate safeguard action to allow the imposition of a tariff or quota restriction on importation . . . ." The recourse to safeguard measures, if activated, would require compensatory concessions to affected trading partners.

With respect to tariffs, Australia could impose a tariff on imports of cooked chicken meat up to the level of our tariff binding without breaching our WTO obligations. Alternatively, if we wanted to impose a tariff above the bound rate, we would be obliged to enter into negotiations under GATT article XXVIII with other WTO members having a trade interest in the goods in question. This process involves the renegotiation or lowering of bindings on tariffs on alternative products of equivalent value in order to provide compensation to affected trading partners. In other words, the compensation would almost certainly need to be provided at the expense of another Australian industry.

(2) (a) The technical working group met on two occasions with a third meeting being held of the people comprising the working group plus representation from BRS scientists.

(b) The meetings of the technical working group took place on 24 June and 29 August 1996 with the third meeting on 22 January 1997.

(c) Members of the working group included representatives from the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS), the poultry industry and the Bureau of Resource Sciences (BRS). Industry organisations represented were the Australian Poultry Industries Association and the Australian Chicken Growers' Council.

(3) Reports of these meetings were prepared and provided to the participants. Copies have been provided to Senator Collins.

(4) As a result of discussions between AQIS and industry, AQIS included in its protocol direct reference to the Australian Standard for Hygienic Production of Poultry Meat for Human Consumption as a guide in the assessment of slaughter and processing establishments for approval to process product for export to Australia and the AQIS Code of Hygienic Practice for the Production of Heat Treated Refrigerated Foods Packaged for Extended Shelf Life as a guide in the evaluation of the processing and handling of product for export to Australia.

(5) The Government's response to the recommendations of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee report on the importation of cooked chicken meat into Australia, tabled in 31 October 1996, is to be provided to the Chairman of the Committee shortly.

(6) The comments of the technical working group were taken into account in the redrafting of the protocol for cooked chicken meat. The redrafted finalised version of the protocol was not circulated for further comment by AQIS.

(7) Most of the international trade in chicken is in uncooked product. Most countries do require area certification from avian diseases in their import protocols because these protocols apply to uncooked chicken as well as to cooked product. The quarantine risk associated with uncooked meat is, ceteris paribus, greater than the risk associated with cooked meat.

(8) AQIS has not recommended that a requirement for area certification from avian disease be included in the import protocol for cooked chicken meat as the import conditions apply only to cooked product. On the basis of available scientific information it is considered that the stringent cooking process proposed by AQIS, in combination with other measures such as ante and post mortem veterinary inspection, the presence of a quality assurance system, separate processing of product destined for Australia and food inspection arrangements, effectively minimise quarantine risks associated with the possible presence of avian viruses in chicken meat. Therefore the requirement for area certification cannot be justified on technical grounds.

(9) The Government/industry working group looking at the economic impact of imported chicken meat met once, on 9 July 1996. Industry agreed to the report being sent to the Minister, concluding the Group's work. There have been subsequent meetings in 1997 between DPIE officers and industry representatives regarding structural adjustment.

Representatives on the working group were:

Industry—Gis Marven,President, Australian Chicken Meat Federation; Chairperson, National Poultry Association; Jeff Fairbrother, Executive Director, Australian Chicken Meat Federation; Executive Director, Australian Poultry Industries Association; Len Brajkovich, Representative, Australian Chicken Growers' Council.

Government—Tim Mackey, First Assistant Secretary, Corporate Policy Division, DPIE; Christopher Short, Senior Economist, Agriculture Branch, ABARE; Rob Newman, Director (A/g), Domestic Meat & Livestock Section, Livestock & Pastoral Division, DPIE; Gail Stevenson, Assistant Secretary (A/g), Economic Policy Branch, Corporate Policy Division, DPIE; Nhon Tran, Director, Primary Industry and Environment Section, Structural Policy Division, Treasury; David Poulter, Director (A/g), Economic Policy Branch, Corporate Policy Division, DPIE.

The following DPIE officers also attended the meeting for the relevant discussions on possible adjustment assistance: Judy Barfield, Director (A/g), Operations, Rural Adjustment Scheme Management, Rural Division, DPIE; Bob Calder, Assistant Secretary, Agribusiness Branch, Rural Division, DPIE; Craig Burns, Director, Multilateral Trade Strategy Section, International Branch, Corporate Policy Division, DPIE.

(10) A report was prepared which served as minutes and this has been provided to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee. A copy has been provided to the Senator.

(11) The matter of a structural adjustment package is still under consideration by the Government. The Minister for Primary Industries and Energy will announce the decision in due course.

Subsequent to the Cabinet decision agreeing to AQIS finalising quarantine requirements for the importation of cooked chicken meat, there has also been further consultations with industry. Both the Australian Chicken Meat Federation and the Australian Chicken Growers' Council have provided submissions to the Government in respect of these issues. The Inter-departmental Committee on Post-Quarantine Matters has also considered these issues.

(12) The scientific tests are being conducted now.

(13) (a) Industry representatives were advised of proposed procedures for the confirmatory testing. Comments provided by industry were passed on to Dr Alexander who designed the trials.

(b) Consultations with industry took place on 22 January 1997.

(c) To maximise the value of the results, the trials are being conducted under strictly controlled conditions and accordingly could not be carried out under commercial conditions as suggested by the Senate committee. It is impracticable to carry out trials in a commercial environment with highly infectious strains of virus. However the trials have been designed so that their results will be relevant to variations in oven temperatures which may occur under commercial conditions.

(d) The results of the trials are expected to be available in June 1997.

(14) (a) The tests are being conducted at the Central Veterinary Laboratory, Weybridge, in the United Kingdom.

(b) Dr Dennis Alexander is conducting the tests in collaboration with his colleagues at the Central Veterinary Laboratory.

(15) I have no knowledge of any other consultancies Dr Alexander may be undertaking.

(16) Dr Alexander is a scientist of international renown and is acting as an independent expert, in whom industry has expressed confidence.

(17) (a) AQIS has inspected chicken slaughter and further processing plants in Thailand.

(b) Five establishments were inspected. They comprised one slaughter establishment, two cooking establishments and two integrated slaughter and cooking establishments.

(c) The inspections were conducted by two senior AQIS veterinarians and an industry representative. In addition, a senior officer of the National Residue Survey conducted an evaluation of Thai residue management programs for chicken production.

(d) The members of the technical mission are in the process of preparing their report on the inspections.

(18) AQIS does not intend to inspect plants from all countries seeking to export cooked chicken meat to Australia. In relation to plants in the USA and Denmark, owing to AQIS's long history of dealing with the authorities and systems employed by these countries AQIS will in principle accept the recommendations of veterinary authorities of these countries as to the plants which meet Australia's quarantine requirements, as would generally be the case with respect to Australia's exports to these markets. Periodic audits will be conducted to ensure compliance with required standards.