Strategy Paper

The Association's strategy should be to pressure the Thai government and encourage allies to press the Australian government to re-assess existing temperature/time parameters for the treatment of cooked chicken meat. To achieve this objective, the Association should pursue a strategy that will mobilize support from stakeholders in Thailand, in Australia and elsewhere.

Domestic Strategy

Objective. The Association's primary objective in pursuing the domestic strategy is to ensure that the Thai government will give this issue higher priority than it has to date. Given the relatively small size of the Australian market for Thai cooked chicken and the greater urgency of other bilateral issues, this issue has not yet been placed high on the Thai government’s agenda.

Action plan.

Establish a coalition with other domestic stakeholders. The Thai Chicken Growers Association and the Thai Feed Mill Association are likely to support efforts to open the Australian chicken meat market because they will benefit from an expanded market. Letters should be sent to them, proposing the formation of a coalition that will lobby the Thai Government and Parliament. Coordinated lobbying efforts will draw greater attention and carry more weight than the Association’s lone voice.

Raise the profile of the issue on the national export agenda. The Association should write to the Board of Trade of Thailand to request that it raise the issue before Export Development Committee. This will give a sense of urgency to the issue.

Generate awareness of the urgency of this issue in Parliament. In order to push the Thai government to resolve the issue swiftly, the Association should communicate to Parliament the importance and urgency of the issue for the Thai chicken industry. To secure Parliamentarian support, the Association will write letters to the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and the House Committee on Agriculture and meet with key Committee members to seek their support.

Encourage the Thai government to exert more pressure on the Australian government. Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs usually leads the Thai government in its discussions with the Australian government, the Association should also maintain contact with the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. With WTO-related trade negotiations under its purview, the Ministry of Commerce will play an important role if the issue is to be taken to the WTO for dispute settlement. The Livestock Department of the Agriculture Ministry will provide relevant information about epidemiological surveillance and veterinary inspection in Thailand in support of the Thai positions in the WTO. Therefore, the Association should write to these Ministries to acknowledge progress made to date, encourage them to press Australia even further and share our ideas for approaching negotiations with Australia (see Negotiation Strategy Paper).

Secure support from Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce. The Association should also write a letter to solicit support from the Australian-Thai Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok. By emphasizing how the issue can affect bilateral trade between Thailand and Australia, the Association will be able to encourage the Chamber to urge the Australian government to reach agreement with the Thai government on this problem.

Australian Strategy

Objective. Australian domestic support from those who will benefit from the import will create pressure to counter a call for protection from Australian domestic chicken producers.

Action Plan.

Build alliances in Australia. Fast food chains such as KFC and McDonald’s and big supermarket chains such as Coles, Woolworth and Safeway are potential allies in Australia. The fast food chains may be interested in sourcing cheap precooked chicken meat from Thailand, while supermarkets may be interested in importing Thai chicken products to satisfy their lower-income customers. The Association should write letters to solicit their support.

Reassure opponents of the import as well as the Australian public that Thailand’s risk management program for processed chicken is effective. The Association must bolster public confidence in the quality of Thailand’s chicken products. To achieve this objective, the media strategy will be employed (see Media Strategy Paper).

International Strategy

Objective. International pressure will help prompt the Australian government to find a swift and satisfactory solution to the problem. Therefore, the Association should work to mobilize support in the United States and Denmark, as well as in Australia.

Action Plan.

Align with the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council and the Danish Poultry Exporters Association. Although we will compete with U.S. and Danish exporters in the Australian market once it is opened, a quick resolution of the issue is of more immediate concern. We should write letters to ask for their support on our position and urge them to encourage their respective governments to coordinate efforts with the Thai government in pressing Australia for a swift and satisfactory resolution to the problem.

Negotiation Strategy

Objective

To persuade Australia to revise, based on sound science, the temperature/time parameters for the treatment of cooked chicken meat. This will enable exports of Thai cooked chicken to enter the Australian market and prevent Australia from implementing an unjustifiably stringent quarantine measure when considering importation of other poultry products in the future.

Allies

The Thai government can build a coalition with the U.S. and Danish governments to negotiate with Australia. These countries’ chicken exporters are also affected by Australia's stringent requirements. The USTR expressed concern regarding this issue in the 1997 and 1998 National Trade Estimate report on Australia.

Basic Arguments

In negotiations with Australia, Thailand should base its positions on the following arguments:

• Thailand understands Australia's concern about and recognizes its sovereign right to prevent the spread of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus. IBDV could have a long-term economic impact on the Australian poultry industry and threaten native bird populations in the country.

• The WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement requires risk assessments to be based on sound scientific principle. It also prohibits discrimination between domestic and foreign products if the same disease conditions exist in the importing country and exporting countries. Australia’s quarantine measure is inconsistent with the Agreement because:

• Each of the various scientific approaches Australia relied on in determining risk was faulty. Although the temperature/time parameters required for the inactivation of IBDV were derived from scientific results, the use of IBDV strain CS 88 in the test was not justified by objective evidence. So far, there is no evidence that this very virulent strain of IBDV is prevalent in Thailand.

• AQIS failed to assess the possible existence of disease-free areas and areas of low-disease prevalence in Thailand. IBDV or some strains of the disease may be limited only to one or more specific geographical areas in Thailand. Therefore, chicken products coming from IBDV-free areas within Thailand should be considered on the basis of their disease status, not that of the rest of the country.

• The proposed cooking regime does not apply to domestic producers despite the occurrence of IBDV in Australia in 1997 as reported in the OIE yearbook. Thus, because disease conditions in Thailand and Australia are similar, chicken products from the two countries should be treated similarly.

Negotiation Tactics

· Remind Australia that despite occasional reports of Blue Tongue disease in Australian cattle, Thailand has allowed imports of Australian beef because of our confidence in Australia’s system of veterinary inspection and sanitary certification. There has never been an outbreak of this disease in Thailand.

· Reconfirm that if this issue is not resolved, Thailand will suspend consideration of the Australian requests to export lupin seed and skim milk to Thailand.

Options

· Invite Australia to send an inspection team to visit the Thai poultry farms that supply chickens that, after processing, will be exported to Australia. During an inspection tour of the Australian delegation in Thailand in 1997, visits were made only to the Thai processing plants that had applied to export to Australia.

· Propose that each batch of source birds be placed under quarantine for one week because chickens infected with IBDV will normally die within 4-5 days

· Seek Australia’s recognition for IBDV-free areas in Thailand.

· Approach the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) to conduct a study on the strains of IBDV that are endemic in Thailand and Australia and, based on the OIE study, develop international standards for verifying the inactivation of IBDV in processed chicken meat.

· Take the case to the WTO for dispute settlement.

Media Strategy

Objectives

• Given a general concern about the spread of IBDV into Australia through imported cooked chicken, the Association must reassure the Australian general public that epidemiological surveillance and quarantine inspections undertaken by Thai veterinary authorities are effective and that quality control programs in Thai processing plants meet international standards.

• To help strengthen support for imports within Australia, the Association must generate public awareness of 1) the negative impacts of trade barriers to imports of foreign chicken and 2) the benefits Australian consumers will derive from foreign competition.

Action Plan

• Publish an op-ed piece in influential newspapers in Australia. Although The Australian claims to be the country’s only truly national newspaper, the Association should also contact other influential local newspapers in each of Australia’s six states, the Northern Territory and in Canberra where federal government policy is made.

Target Newspapers

• The Australian

• The Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph in New South Wales

• The Age and the Herald Sun in Victoria

• The Courier-Mail in Queensland

• The Advertiser in South Australia

• The Times in Western Australia

• The Mercury in Tasmania

• Alice Spring News in North Territory

• The Canberra Times in Canberra

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