The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development after remaining mum on the unilateral regulatory European Commission (EC) phytosanitary measures, that will knock South African citrus exports, yesterday finally broke its silence.
The department said yesterday that South Africa viewed the current implementation of the regulation as not only trade restrictive, but also technically unjustified.
Both the the Citrus Growers Association and Agri Business Chamber earlier this month loudly decried the measures, warning the clearance of hundreds of containers of Southern African oranges that are already being shipped was uncertain due to “unjustified, scientifically flawed, unnecessary and disproportionate” EU regulatory measures.
They said the EU had recently imposed protectionist measures on agriculture by changing its regulations on plant safety for citrus, without notifying its trading partners within a reasonable time.
Last week, the Citrus Growers Association of South Africa’s special envoy for Market Access and EU Matters, Deon Joubert, said the new politically motivated EU regulations could see R654 million of South African citrus destroyed.
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development said, “South Africa had through numerous engagements with the EC identified critical areas of concern. These include the failure of the regulation to recognise South Africa’s already strengthened systems approach for integrated pest risk-management of the false codling moth.
“The implementation of this regulation also brings to the fore the unfairness and irrationality of introducing cumbersome logistical and infrastructural requirements relating to pre-cooling requirements during mid-season of South African citrus exports. Plans for these exports are concluded in advance of the export season to which the EC was made aware of on numerous occasions,” the department said.
The European Commission published the revised Annex VII to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/2072 with regard to requirements for the export of citrus, mainly oranges from South Africa to the European Union. This publication occurred when South Africa was still engaged in technical discussions with the EC on the proposed measures.
The department said this new regulation was published on June 21, and came into force on June, 24 which implied that consignments arriving in the EU from July 14, had to be compliant with the new regulation.
The department said South Africa viewed the implementation of such a measure within three days of its publication without considering consignments that would have left prior the publication and are destined to arrive after the said date, as “against the spirit of transparency and also restricts adequate transitional time to comply with such a measure”.
“South Africa posits that the measure as taken by the EC falls outside the ambit of an emergency measure, and therefore exploration of least restrictive measures that would result in the minimum impediment to the international movement of the South African citrus commodities and its conveyances, need to be explored,” said the department.
It said said South Africa continued to engage with the EC on the new regulations and remained optimistic on exploring options and finding solutions that would continue to ensure safe trade, and minimal impact on trade.
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