The United States government has launched the initial steps in a potential World Trade Organisation disputes proceeding with Japan, which it claims is unfairly restricting the import of American apples.
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Washington has called for formal consultations with Tokyo at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It claims that quarantine restrictions imposed on US apples since 1994 by the Japanese authorities break WTO free trade rules.
These were imposed to protect against the introduction of fire blight and include bans on imports of apples from orchards where any fire blight is detected or up to 500 metres away, a requirement that export orchards are inspected three times yearly for the disease and a post-harvest chlorine treatment.
By Keith Nuthall, just-food.com correspondent
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