The Imported Motor Vehicle Industry Association (VIA) is raising a number of concerns in its submission on the draft Import Health Standard (IHS) aimed at keeping brown marmorated stink bugs out of New Zealand.
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is proposing changes to the Import Health Standard for vehicles, machinery and parts.
As well as changes to the layout of the draft IHS document with expanded sections, there are also proposed changes to measures such as brown marmorated stink bug management.
Moldova, Portugal, and Ukraine have now been included as brown marmorated stink bug risk countries.
Three changes relating to brown marmorated stink bug management include the removal of new vehicle type exclusions, mandatory submission of a declaration linked to exclusion criteria for some new commodities, and minor changes to the residual insecticide treatment option for importers of aircraft and watercraft.
VIA says it supports the intention of the draft IHS and notes there are “no significant” changes for used vehicle importers.
However, it does raise concerns around stink bug management in countries such as China and Korea which are not included as Schedule 3 countries.
“We have previously commented on concerns that China and Korea had not been included as Schedule 3 countries, whilst we understand that MPI does not have the scientific data to support the inclusion of China or Korea, VIA still has concerns regarding shipments from these jurisdictions,” VIA technical manager Malcolm Yorston says.
Yorston says Thailand is another area of concern and a VIA staff member was there in mid-2019 “where a proliferation of stink bugs were seen”.
MPI says it will “continue to closely monitor vehicles, machinery and parts appropriately from countries where BMSB is a native pest” such as China, Korea and Taiwan.
“While there have been some BMSB detections across a range of commodities from these countries, detections have not been at the level that justifies MPI implementing BMSB management requirements on the vehicle, machinery and parts pathway.
“Additionally, in these native BMSB countries there are native competitors and predators, and there is less risk of significant population growth as is seen when BMSB invades other countries outside of its home range.
“MPI will also continue to appropriately monitor vehicles, machinery and parts from other non-native countries to determine possible BMSB spread. Non-native countries are likely to experience much higher populations of BMSB over time due to lack of native competitors and predators, and the large, increasing population in Italy is an example of this.
“MPI will continue to closely monitor the United Kingdom (UK) due to closeness of other Schedule 3 countries and because some UK ports such as Southampton are also used as major export hubs for exporting targeted goods from Schedule 3 countries to New Zealand and Australia,” it says.
*MPI is inviting comment on the proposed changes with submissions closing on July 17.
