Gillard rejects call for temporary tariffs on canned fruit imports

By Jane Ryan ABC

The Prime Minister says Australia will not consider imposing tariffs on imported canned fruit.

Processor SPC Armdona cancelled contracts with 60 fruit growers last month, and says the government should introduce temporary tariffs to protect the industry.

But Julia Gillard says that specific tariffs risk retaliatory taxes on other agricultural exports.

“We say ‘OK, we will protect a particular producer or a particular industry with a tariff’, only to find that other countries around the world who import things from Australia, including agricultural products, then retaliate with their own tariffs.”

Speaking during a visit to northern Tasmania, the Prime Minister also said that the government has no plans to announce a national drought policy in the near future, and denied claims that free trade negotiations with China have collapsed.

She said negotiations will continue later this month.