ABSTRACT
In August 2003, the government of the Philippines took Australia’s longstanding ban on banana imports to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The ban is aimed at preventing a range of banana diseases and pests entering Australia that could devastate its small but significant banana industry, which supplies the domestic market but does not export. The Philippines argued that this quarantine measure was not justified on scientific grounds and was illegal under WTO phytosanitary (plant health) rules. From Australia’s perspective, this challenge presented a potentially important precedent with regard to the future of the nation’s quarantine system, with implications that would flow well beyond the banana sector. More broadly, this case provides an illustration of the multi-scalar forces that interact in the construction of cross-continental food chains and, more particularly, the international politics of agri-food trade.
