The Land
Page : 1 of 1
Circulation : 41,945
Area Of Clip : 252.75 sqcm
Clip
Clip ID
ID :: 0000001
9729220
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Page : 20
Section :
Edition :
Region : NSW Regional
Rice wants spot
at negotiations
By RODERICK
MAKIM
ICEGROWERS in NSW
are demanding a place
at the table for future
free trade agreements (FTAs)
in Asia, after being left out of
negotiations for the recent
FTA with Korea.
“The FTA with Korea
which excluded rice was particularly disappointing,” said
Ricegrowers’ Association of
Australia (RGA) executive
director Ruth Wade.
“Our industry would be very
concerned if the Korean FTA
were to create a precedent for
other important trade negotiations that are currently taking
place,”
“Our industry is calling on
the Australian government to
ensure we have access to other
important north Asian markets, particularly Japan and
China.”
Ms Wade said it was impossible to put a dollar value on the
lost opportunity for the rice
industry in Korea, and it was
vital that such a loss of access
to important markets didn’t
happen again.
“What we are seeking is fair
and reasonable market access
which will allow us to meet
the current and future
demand for Australian grown
rice... and allow Australian
growers to compete on a level
playing field with other rice
R
growing countries,” she said.
The RGA had support on a
State level from Liberal Party
member of the NSW Legislative Council Scot MacDonald.
“The NSW rice industry is
essentially the Australian rice
industry,” Mr MacDonald
said.
“The 2013 crop in NSW was
1.16 million tonnes, which
represents more than 99 per
cent of the national crop.
“These growers need more
support... we need to fight for
this (inclusion in future
FTAs).”
Mr MacDonald said with
negotiation for FTAs with
both Japan and China rapidly
approaching, it was “definitely
now or never,” for the rice
industry to get a seat at the
negotiation table.
Ms Wade agreed, and said
the RGA has a delegate on the
National Farmers Federation
Trade Committee which has
participated in all relevant
trade delegations, along with
having trade discussions with
Trade Minister Andrew Robb
and the Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“The rice industry is very
aware of the sensitivities surrounding rice in current trade
negotiations with our Asian
neighbours,
particularly
Japan,” Ms Wade said.
“It is important to understand the Australian rice
industry is not trying to compete with Japanese growers for
market access – in fact the size
of the Australian rice industry
in comparison to these countries means this is just not possible.”
Ms Wade also said she did
not think other industries
need to be excluded from the
trade negotiations so rice
could be included.
“Our view is that trade
agreements with exclusions
are not free trade agreements.”
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) licensed copy or Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth) s 48A copy