Australia's ban on New Zealand apples overturned by World Trade Organisation

The World Trade Organisation has overturned Australia's 90-year-long ban on importing New Zealand apples, according to NZ media reports, which are branding the decision "a win against Australia".

The international trade row has been festering for nearly 90 years. New Zealand apples were first banned from Australia after fireblight was found in Northland, in 1919, probably after infected nursery stock was imported from California.



There have been a series of failed talks over the issue, which led to the Kiwis taking a complaint to the World Trade Organisation in 2007, on the basis that constraints proposed by their Trans-Tasman neighbours were an unacceptable trade barrier.

Australian growers have said imports of New Zealand apples could cost the major pipfruit areas in New South Wales $30 million a year in lost sales, but since those estimates were made, the world's biggest apple-growing nation, China, has sought to also enter the market.