ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA – Pacific Rim government officials met this week in Adelaide, Australia to streamline import-export requirements and save grape growers and winemakers millions of dollars. More than 80 wine regulators and wine industry representatives from 17 Pacific Rim economies convened at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Wine Regulatory Forum’s 2015 Technical Meeting to share good regulatory practices on wine certification, analysis and winemaking practices in the growing trade region.
The two-day international conference, hosted by the Winemakers Federation of Australia and the Australian government, focused on eliminating burdensome and duplicative regulations to reduce the costs of cross-border wine trade, stimulate demand and increase wine exports to the growing Asia Pacific region.
Tony Battaglene, Winemakers’ Federation of Australia strategy and international affairs general manager, said the APEC Wine Regulatory Forum (WRF) “works to assist developing countries in implementing sound, science-based regulations. APEC region requirements, which vary from country to country, can be cost prohibitive for winemakers.”
“The WRF initiatives advanced in Adelaide will significantly improve trade prospects across the region and deliver substantial savings to grape growers and winemakers,” Battaglene added.
WRF Working Groups made significant progress in Adelaide including:
- Harmonizing maximum residue limits set for pesticides used on wine grapes,
- Increasing the efficiency of laboratory analytical testing,
- Advancing international principles for nations to use when establishing wine regulations, and
- Developing a model wine export certificate that can be used in any APEC economy requiring certification.
In addition, a new WRF Working Group was established in Adelaide to address the need for Good Regulatory Practices in international trade.
The 17 APEC economies represented in Adelaide were Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong China, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, United States and Viet Nam. In addition, the government and wine industry of Argentina and South Africa participated in the meeting as observers.
APEC, the premier Pacific Rim economic forum made up of 21 economies, supports sustainable economic growth and prosperity in the region. Within APEC, the WRF works to assist developing economies in implementing specific, measurable good regulatory practices and to facilitate wine trade in the APEC Region. The WRF, which next meets in Ottawa, Canada in October 2016, is funded by APEC under a multiyear project through 2018. For more information on the WRF, visit http://wineregulatoryforum.blogspot.com.au/.
