AUSTRALIA – QUARANTINE REGIME FOR IMPORTS
Document: Request for the Establishment of a Panel by the European Communities
Date: 3 September 2003
Document codes: WT/DS287/7
Complainant: EU
Respondent: Australia
Third parties: Canada, Chile, China, India, Philippines, Thailand, U.S.
Dispute stage: Mutually Agreed Solution
Agreements cited: Art. 2.2, 4.1, 5.1, 5.6, 5.7  Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS)

AUSTRALIA – QUARANTINE REGIME FOR IMPORTS
Request for the Establishment of a Panel by the European Communities
The following communication, dated 29 August 2003, from the Permanent Delegation of the
European Commission to the Chairman of the Disp ute Settlement Body, is circulated pursuant to
Article 6.2 of the DSU.
On 3 April 2003, the European Communities requested consultations with the Government of
Australia pursuant to Article 4 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the
Settlement of Disputes (DSU), Article XXII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994
(GATT 1994) and Article 11 of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary
Measures (SPS Agreement) with regard to the Australian quarantine regime for imports. This request
was circulated to the WTO Members on 9 April 2003 as document , " ".
Consultations were held on 8 May 2003. Unfortunately, these consultations failed to settle the
dispute.
The European Communities therefore requests that a panel be established pursuant to
Article 6 of the DSU, Article XXII:2 of GATT 1994 and Article 11 of the SPS Agreement.
The relevant legal provisions of the Australi an regime for the importation of live animals,
dead animals and animal parts, meat and meat pr oducts, dairy products, bee products, living plants,
seeds, plant parts, and fresh fruits and vegetables are Sections 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 62, 63 and 64 of the
Quarantine Proclamation 1998 1 which prohibit importation of those products unless a Director of
Quarantine grants a permit to import them into Australia. For example, Section 64 of the Quarantine
proclamation provides that "(t)he importation into Australia of a fresh fruit or vegetable is prohibited
unless a Director of Quarantine has granted the person a permit to import it into Australia".
The procedures and criteria applied by Directors of Quarantine for deciding whether or not to
grant a permit for importation of those products are laid down in Sections 5D and 13 of the
Quarantine Act 1908
2, Sections 64(2) and 70 of the Quarantine Proclamation 1998, and the related
administrative frameworks3.
The European Communities seeks examination by the panel of the unduly restrictive
quarantine measures applied by Australia of the following products from Member States of the
European Communities: tomatoes, fresh citrus fruit, apples, peaches, nectarines, cucumbers, lettuce,

1 Quarantine Proclamation 1998, of 7 July 1998, as amended.
2 Quarantine Act 1908, No. 3, of 30 March 1908, as amended.
3 AFFA Import Risk Analysis Handbook (Canberra, 2003), AQIS Import Risk Analysis Process
Handbook (Canberra 1998), and AFFA Draft Guidelines to Import Risk Analysis (Canberra, 2001).

carrots, apricots, edible eggs and egg products, uncooked pigmeat, pig semen, uncooked poultry meat,
calf-milk replacer, and organic fertiliser based on chicken manure.
For those products, an assessment of quarantine risk has not been carried out, and a Director
of Quarantine therefore has not made a decision whether or not to grant a permit for their importation
into Australia. Consequently, importation of those products into Australia is prohibited.
The European Communities considers that the restrictions on the above products constitute
SPS measures within the meaning of Article 1.1 and paragraph 1 of Annex A of the SPS Agreement
which are in breach of Australia's obligations under the provisions of the SPS Agreement , in
particular, but not necessarily exclusively of:
– Article 5.1 of the SPS Agreement, because, inter alia, these measures are not based on
an assessment of risks.
– Article 2.2 of the SPS Agreement because, inter alia, in so far as these SPS measures
are not based on an assessment of risks, they are maintained without sufficient
scientific evidence.
In addition, the European Communities seeks examination by the panel of the specific
conditions for import of pigmeat into Australia
4. According to those conditions, pigmeat cannot be
imported into Australia from Member States of the European Communities, with the exception of (i)
canned pigmeat
5 and (ii) fresh deboned pigmeat from Denmark which has been heat-treated to a
minimum core temperature of 56°C for not less than 60 minutes (or an approved equivalent heating
process) at an approved facility in Australia6.
The European Communities considers that the restrictions on the importation of the above
products are SPS measures within the meaning of Article 1.1 and paragraph 1 of Annex A of the SPS
Agreement which are in breach of Australia's obligations under the provisions of the SPS Agreement,
in particular, but not necessarily exclusively of:
– Article 4.1 of the SPS Agreement because, inter alia, the measures do not accept as
equivalent measures adopted by Denmark for the heat-treatment of fresh pigmeat.
– Article 5.6 of the SPS Agreement because, inter alia, by prohibiting imports of
pigmeat from Members other than Denmark, and by prohibiting imports of bone-in
fresh pigmeat heat-treated to the same core temperature as deboned fresh meat, the
measures are more trade-restrictive than necessary.
The European Communities requests that a Pa nel be established with standard terms of
reference, in accordance with Article 11 of the SPS Agreement and Article 7 of the DSU.
Service’s import conditions database under the commodity heading "pig meat".
6 In accordance with "Condition C8960 Quarantine re quirements for the importation of uncooked pig
meat from Denmark", available at the internet service described as ICON - the Australian Quarantine and
Inspection Service’s import conditions database under the commodity heading "pig meat".