import requirements for netherlands truss tomatoes the european communities raised concerns that australia was taking too long to conduct an import risk assessment for truss tomatoes due to reasons other than technical issues. the risk assessment was still incomplete after six years. in 1999 australia presented a draft risk assessment on tomatoes without green parts despite the netherlands explicit request to export tomatoes on the truss. truss tomatoes had been approved from new zealand after new zealand had approved australian imports of the same product. on 26 march 2003 biosecurity australia unexpectedly indicated that there was no longer a need for a risk assessment for truss tomatoes. however import conditions were still pending as a draft review of the quarantine requirements for the import of dutch tomatoes needed to be circulated to stakeholders for comment. the european communities felt that the time period necessary for australia to conduct its import risk analysis was disproportionate to the risk and discriminated unjustifiably between wto members. australia explained that on 26 march biosecurity australia announced that imports of truss tomatoes would be assessed as an extension of the technical policy recently developed for truss tomatoes from new zealand - this would shorten the risk assessment process. the draft review would include draft import conditions and would be released to stakeholders with a 30-day comment period. the finalized review document would be available before the end of may 2003. in june 2003 australia reported that the draft import policy for truss tomatoes from the netherlands had been issued and was publicly available and stakeholders invited to comment. a response to the netherlands request for market access would follow soon. the european communities expressed disappointment that the draft policy was still open for comments from stakeholders and therefore far from being finalized. the philippines speaking on behalf of indonesia and thailand supported the views of the european communities.