The Coalition’s anti-dumping policy announced on Monday will ensure that vegetable growers are offered some level of protection against aggressive dumping of vegetable products at below the cost of production, AUSVEG CEO Richard Mulcahy said today.

“The present situation with our current anti-dumping laws is that these are unnecessarily protracted proceedings that can take years and years to resolve, after which there is little point in having pursued the matter in the first place as the produce has long been sold,” Mr Mulcahy said.

“I’m pleased that the Coalition is taking a strong stance on this issue as it sends a strong message to those businesses that would consider this underhanded practice in a bid to drive their competitors out of business.” 

AUSVEG is the national peak industry body representing Australia’s 9,000 vegetable and potato growers.

“All reports from the growers that we know have been involved in this process in the past is that it is a very time consuming, expensive and frustrating process that does very little to prevent the damaging practice of dumping produce below cost of production,” said Mr Mulcahy.

“It’s important that we are able to offer some level of protection to our local producers to ensure they are competing on a level playing field. We are not talking about protectionism but rather ensuring that illegal dumping is tackled within a reasonable timeframe and with appropriate sanctions.”

“Illegal dumping is a long-term aggressive and indefensible strategy to steal market share and put producers in competing countries out of business. AUSVEG strongly opposes the practice of dumping, which is against World Trade Organisation principles.”

“AUSVEG supports the approach suggested by the Opposition which says that foreign businesses that have been subject to an anti-dumping action for more than 60 days must demonstrate that they are not dumping goods, as this will allow early intervention in what has historically been a protracted and ineffective system.”

“Imposing a time limit on submissions to Canberra by the parties involved in each case is a good move, as it will ensure that cases cannot be simply delayed and delayed, creating large legal bills and clogging up the system.”

“The promise of additional investment by the Coalition to provide 20 specialist personnel to investigate these matters and the investment of $2.5 million a year shows a strong commitment to ensuring the practice of illegal dumping is stopped.”

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: Richard J Mulcahy, Chief Executive Officer, AUSVEG
Phone: (03) 9822 0388, Email: richard.mulcahy@ausveg.com.au