"Banana wars" : the food security implications of the Australia-Philippines agricultural trade dispute

Since 2000 Australia and the Philippines have been engaged in an acrimonious dispute over agricultural trade. Ostensibly, this dispute is about Australia's use of strict phytosanitary standards to restrict the importation of Philippine fruit products. Arguing that these restrictions are being used as non-tariff barriers to trade, the Philippines has retaliated by reducing imports of Australian cattle and boxed meat, threatening to ban Australian dairy imports and, recently, referring the matter to the World Trade Organization. Underlying this seemingly strong reaction is a trade imbalance overwhelmingly in Australia's favor. This paper analyzes the trade in what are in fact luxury foods, including vegetables and tropical fruits, and offers a critical assessment of the competing visions of food security that have been deployed in the trade disputes between the two countries.