Fiji ban

A team of officials from Fiji’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism and Biosecurity Authority, will be arriving in Port Moresby over the weekend to meet with officials from PNG to iron out issues that sparked the trade impasse. The issue between PNG and Fiji is over Ox & Palm and other PNG Made products.

This was revealed in a letter dated 21st September, 2016, from Minister Siddiq Koya to PNG’s Minister for Trade, Commerce and Industry, Richard Maru.

This was after the National Agriculture Quarantine & Inspection Authority (NAQIA) of Papua New Guinea wrote to PNG’s Trade Commerce & Industry Minister, Richard Maru advising him that as far as the Authority is concerned, Ox & Palm does not possess any bio-security risk to Fiji as claimed by Biosecurity Authority of Fiji (BAF) and its Trade Minister.

NAQIA revealed that Fiji does not have in place an established biosecurity pathway (or import protocol) for PNG’s Ox & Palm and that there is no real biosecurity threat to Fiji.