China has notified the World Trade Organisation that it will introduce new regulations covering anti-pest measures for timber imports, including those from Australia. Source: Philip Hopkins for Timberbiz
The chief executive of Tasmania’s Tree Alliance, Penny Wells, said it was understood the new regulations would govern how its customs manages phytosanitary requirements for all countries’ timber imports. Tree Alliance is the representative body for private forestry in Tasmania.
“The new requirements appear likely to apply to logs and sawn timber, excluding wood packaging materials, processed wood products and bamboo products,” she said.
Ms Wells said the bans on Australian timber imports, including from Tasmania, were due to concerns about a number of beetle detections – Bark beetle (lps grandicollis). “This beetle originates from North America and arrived in Australia in the 1940s and is now in every state except Tasmania. They can cause significant damage, through tree mortality, to pine plantations,” she said.
All softwood exports from Tasmania had the phytosanitary requirement to fumigate for the Bark beetle and the Sirex wood wasp. “While the Bark beetle has not been detected (here), the Sirex wasp is in Tasmania.”
Ms Wells said the situation had created significant uncertainty. Some exporters of Tasmanian logs had cancelled or postponed shipments. “A number of Tasmanian forestry companies are known to be impacted and this has had flow-on effects through the supply chain including harvest and haulage contractors,” she said. “How long this issue will continue for is unknown.”
Ms Wells said industry was working with the Commonwealth’s Department of Agriculture to ensure the new phytosanitary measures would allow timber exports to China to resume.
“However, to date there has been no clarity provided from the Chinese Government in relation to the required phytosanitary treatments,” she said.
