01/19/05 New E.U. trade barrier on U.S. apples?

01/19/05 New E.U. trade barrier on U.S. apples?

Various U.S apple industry organizations are concerned about the effects of a new European Union policy on apple shipments to member nations. Nancy Foster of the U.S. Apple Association says the new rule requires all U.S. apples shipped into the E.U. be tested for plant pests and disease upon arrival. FOSTER: U.S. apple exports have had an excellent track record of not having plant disease and pest problems, and so the Europeans had not subjected them to extensive inspections. The new rule is set to take effect April First. The effect is two fold for the U.S. apple industry. The first is the added costs to U.S. apples soon to be subject to additional inspections. The second is how the new rule benefits rival apple producing nations. FOSTER: A number of our foreign apple competitors like Chile, and China, and Argentina, have been granted a reduced rate of phytosanitary inspection, because they did meet the arbitrary number of previous phyto inspections. And that has led to communication with and pleas of assistance to U.S.D.A. FOSTER: U.S. Apple joined with a number of apple industry groups last week to send a letter to Secretary Veneman and also to the agriculture negotiator for the U.S. Trade Representative asking for their immediate assistance to try to overturn this trade barrier.
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