Biosecurity Australia has decided to ‘stop the clock' on its import risk analysis (IRA) of fresh apples from the US, in order to seek more information from the US Department of Agriculture on potential threats.
Biosecurity Australia's chief executive Colin Grant ordered a stop to the revision of the draft IRA on 4 March.
Under Australian quarantine regulations, the ‘stop the clock' procedure may be invoked ‘when further information is essential to complete an IRA and that a proposer or another person can provide the information'.
In a letter to stakeholders, Mr Grant said the clock would be restarted once the information was received from the USDA and it had been demonstrated that risk levels were acceptable, or could be managed with quarantine regulations.
The previous draft of the IRA was released on 22 October last year, and the current version being drafted is to be reviewed by Australia's Eminent Scientists Group on completion.
