The United States has won a disputes hearing at the World Trade Organisation, with a panel ruling that Japan’s quarantine measures on imported apples from the USA could not be justified on health grounds under the rules of the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Japan has leave to appeal to the WTO’s Appellate Body if it chooses. Washington had been complaining about the quarantine restrictions imposed on US apples since 1994 to protect against the introduction of fire blight.
They include bans on imports of apples from orchards where any fire blight is detected or up to 500 metres away plus requirements that export orchards are inspected three times yearly for the disease and given post-harvest chlorine treatment.
