Trade Minister Mark Vaile today confirmed that the Final Report of the WTO Panel on lamb meat had found against the tariff measures imposed by the United States on Australian and New Zealand lamb exports.

The final report was released to Australia, NZ and the US overnight as principal parties to the dispute and is expected to be publicly released in the next few weeks.

"This is a great outcome for the Australian lamb industry and I appreciate its close involvement in the case. The WTO Panel has re-affirmed its interim findings that the tariffs imposed by the US on our lamb exports were unjustified and were inconsistent with WTO rules," Mr Vaile said.

On July 22, last year, the US imposed harsh restrictions on imports of Australian and NZ lamb including: a 9% tariff on all imports up to an annual quota of 31,851 tonnes; a 40% tariff on above-quota imports; a progressive reduction of the in-quota tariff to 6% in July 2000, then 3% in July 2001; and a progressive reduction of the above-quota tariff to 32% in July 2000 and 24% in July 2001. Australia immediately challenged these measures in the WTO.

"From day one in this dispute, the Federal Government has, and will continue to pursue the vital interests of Australian lamb producers.  Once the WTO processes are complete we will seek the immediate removal of these unfair and unjustified import restrictions," Mr Vaile said.

"The Report will be automatically adopted soon after its public release unless the US appeals.  And even if the US does appeal, we will vigorously defend the findings.

"Australia's win in this case demonstrates the value of the WTO rules based system.  Even the largest players like the US must respect the rules and I will continue to use the system to enforce our WTO rights and to ensure that our trading partners live up to their commitments," Mr Vaile said.

Contact:  Bruce Mills 02 6277 7420