Exporters of citrus produce fall foul of EU red tape
NEW regulations imposed by the European Union to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) governing the import of citrus from South Africa, has already impacted 3.2 million cartons of citrus.
This week, the chief executive of the Citrus Grower’s Association of South Africa, Justin Chadwick, said the move was drastic and impacted the export of oranges from South African shores to other countries.
He said: “These transgressions have already impacted an estimated
3.2 million cartons of citrus valued at R605 million, with reports of hundreds of containers of South African citrus being detained by authorities in the EU on arrival.”
This has been met with concern by the DA’S spokesperson on agriculture Andricus van der Westhuizen, who is calling on the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) to communicate with the European Union regarding its new regulations, as they were negatively impacting local farmers.
“The recent changes to phytosanitary standards made by the EU regarding the import of citrus from South Africa, have had an immensely negative effect on our citrus farmers in the Western Cape,” he said.
“While it is understandable that the EU wants to protect its own eco-systems against the false codling moth (FCM), the manner in which these new regulations were implemented was unreasonable and unfair.
“Exporters were expected to put measures in place to comply with the new standards within three weeks, something that is completely unrealistic and has led to tons of our citrus being stuck in ports in Europe, before the South African government belatedly managed to salvage the situation to some extent.”
According to the Citrus Growers Association this has caused more than R200m in losses to the South African citrus industry.
“The world does not need more protectionism in trade. What is needed is freer markets that allow developing economies fair access to lucrative developed markets.”
Chadwick told Independent Media the new regulations were premature and posed a threat. “The longterm enforcement of the new FCM regulations remains a serious threat to the industry, which is why the World Trade Organization consultation process remains critically important.
“The CGA’S position remains that the cold treatment prescribed within the new regulations is contrary to scientific evidence, making it an arbitrary and unnecessarily restrictive trade measure and accordingly contravenes international requirements for such phytosanitary trade regulations.”
Chadwick added an understanding had been with the WTO which would not exclude the imports from various origins but that the new standards by the EU had backfired.
“In terms of WTO agreements, members have agreed not to discriminate among imports from different origins, not to impose sanitary and technical barriers to trade that are discriminatory and not based on international standards or on sound scientific evidence.
“It is clear that the EU’S protectionist FCM, false codling moth import measures against South Africa violate these conditions.
“In its request for consultations, South Africa identified 21 inconsistencies in the new proposed phytosanitary measures, against the guidelines of the WTO Agreement, which the EU is obligated to adhere to,” he said.
The Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform has since made provisions to allow South African citrus growers to export their harvests to the EU markets.