NAQIA outdated, says Tomscoll

​The National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA) is outdated and is slowing trade in the country.

Agriculture and Livestock Minister Tommy Tomscoll said this during the authority’s three-day consultation meeting with government stakeholders about the proposed Biosecurity Bill.

The cost of goods and services are high and NAQIA has to be responsible by playing their part so that the organisation not only modernises but must become effective, efficient, in control and must be feared by the people of Papua New Guinea.  

Tomscoll was giving the keynote address at the consultation meet, which started today, will continue tomorrow (April 19) and on Thursday (April 21).

He said the Biosecurity Bill is an important piece of legislation for Papua New Guinea or any country for this matter.

A traditional biosecurity bill is very much focused on the protection of food safety as well as keeping away exotic pests and diseases. It is also focused on standards.

Parked under his ministry, the bill involves many cross-cutting and broad issues but is relevant to the development of the agriculture sector as well as the growth of trade in PNG.

Tomscoll said old-fashioned biosecurity bills deal with removing and restricting diseases through management but if we are not careful and under-estimate this bill, we can easily become an obstruction to economic growth as well as a destruction to the creation of wealth for our people.

This is because if we don’t implement it to immunise trade and wealth, it stops the growth of wealth and stops trading from happening.

A productive biosecurity bill is a document that should encourage trade and at the same time, create wealth for our people within our country. It should drive the creation of wealth domestically.

Tomscoll stated that this is why this bill is an important instrument for government, further adding that many governments today use biosecurity bills to protect their economy and that PNG is still continuing to use an outdated colonial legislation that no longer protects our economy. Instead, it has opened our economy to influx of foreign traders and a foreign takeover of our economy.

Issues that come to the forefront with biosecurity bills are how to enhance trade domestically and how biosecurity bills are used to protect trade and its growth.

Author: 
Annette Kora