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The principal chemicals used by Western Australia’s horticultural industries for field control and post-harvest disinfestation procedures for Mediterranean fruit fly are soon to be withdrawn from use due to public health concerns. When this occurs, the necessary switch to alternative control methods such as bait sprays and intensive fruit fly trapping will involve additional producer costs. Given these costs, this paper evaluates the option of eradicating Mediterranean fruit fly from the State and discusses possible cost sharing arrangements between government and industry that could be reached for mutual benefit.

International trade of agricultural products not only generates wealth but is also responsible for the introduction of invasive pests beyond their natural range. Comprehensive bioeconomic modelling frameworks are increasingly needed to assist in the resolution of import access disputes. However, frameworks that combine welfare analysis attributable to trade and invasive species spread management are lacking. This study provides a demonstration of how a comprehensive economic framework, which takes into account both the gains from trade and the costs of invasive species outbreaks, can inform decision-makers when making quarantine decisions. We develop a partial equilibrium trade model considering international trade and combine it with a stratified dispersal model for the spread and management of potential outbreaks of an invasive species. An empirical estimation is made of the economic welfare consequences for Australia of allowing quarantine-restricted trade in New Zealand apples to take place. The results suggest the returns to Australian society from importing New Zealand apples are likely to be negative. The price differential between the landed product with SPS measures in place and the autarkic price is insufficient to outweigh the increase in expected damage resulting from increased fire blight risk. As a consequence, this empirical analysis does not support the opening up of this trade.

This paper provides a demonstration of how a comprehensive economic framework, which takes into account both the gains from trade and the costs of invasive species outbreaks, can inform decision-makers when making quarantine decisions. Using the theoretical framework developed in Cook and Fraser (2008) an empirical estimation is made of the economic welfare consequences for Australia of allowing quarantine-restricted trade in New Zealand apples to take place. The results suggest the returns to Australian society from importing New Zealand apples are likely to be negative. The price differential between the landed product with SPS measures in place and the autarkic price is insufficient to outweigh the increase in expected damage resulting from increased fire blight risk. As a consequence, this empirical analysis suggests the net benefits created by opening up this trade are marginal.

This paper provides a demonstration of how a comprehensive economic framework, which takes into account both the gains from trade and the costs of invasive species outbreaks, can inform decision-makers when making quarantine decisions. Using the theoretical framework developed in Cook and Fraser (2008) an empirical estimation is made of the economic welfare consequences for Australia of allowing quarantine-restricted trade in New Zealand apples to take place. The results suggest the returns to Australian society from importing New Zealand apples are likely to be negative. The price differential between the landed product with SPS measures in place and the autarkic price is insufficient to outweigh the increase in expected damage resulting from increased fire blight risk. As a consequence, this empirical analysis suggests the net benefits created by opening up this trade are marginal.

This study is motivated by the suggestion that the objectives of the AWB Ltd have changed since semi-privatisation of the Australian Wheat Board under the Wheat Marketing Act, 1989. Conceptualising this change of objectives as a shift from revenue maximization to profit maximization, this study examines the impact of such a change on the pricing policies of a multi-market price-setting firm. More specifically, this study investigates, for two hypothetical objective functions, a risk averse firm’s price-setting behaviour in an “overseas” and a “domestic” market, given differing costs of supply, uncertain demand functions and differing price elasticities of demand in each market. The aim is to generate empirically testable hypotheses relating to the impact of a change of objectives on pricing behaviour.

Australia’s membership of the World Trade Organisation has generated a need for analytical techniques demonstrating that the behaviour of its internal markets and regulatory authorities for food and food-related products conform with the provisions of the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement). However, since quarantine has long been considered a scientific issue, it is as yet unclear what role economic models have to play in this process. This article shows how consumer welfare effects can be integrated with the traditional producer welfare effects in quantitative analytical models using the examples of the mango and tomato industries in Western Australia, both of which enjoy quarantine protection from interstate growers.