FARMERS may no longer be able to get legitimate protection against imports because of the findings of a federal report on the pork industry, a trade analyst says.
Head of ITS Global, Alan Oxley, says the Productivity Commission, which prepared the report, has refused to accept that World Trade Organisation rules should be applied, even if an industry was being hit hard by imports.
``This principle which the commission has set down has significant implications,'' he said.
``It effectively rules out use of the WTO Safeguards Agreement in future for Australian agriculture, or any other industry,'' Mr Oxley said.
Under WTO rules, temporary tariffs can be used to help restructure industries being undermined by an unexpected and prolonged surge in imports.
In a review of the PC report prepared for Australian Pork Limited, ITS Global said it contained ``weak'' and ``uninformed'' analysis and had not worked within its terms of reference.
The PC report, released last December, concluded that high feed prices, not rising imports, were the main cause of the industry's problems.
This was ``despite ample evidence otherwise'', and that WTO rules did not require imports to be the sole cause of an industry's problems, ITS Global said. The PC report agreed imports had risen strongly, that cheaper imports stopped producers from passing on higher costs, and that importers were being subsidised.
``Yet it formally refused to conclude pork imports were harming the industry or that the terms of the WTO Agreement should be invoked,'' ITS Global said.Weekly Times
