The dietary supplement trade argues that the move will severely reduce the number of products permitted for sale and will also impose significant costs for registration of the herbs and vitamins. This in turn will drive up supplement prices and force many products off the market, reducing sales.
Australia has recently ordered a clampdown on the industry, which is suffering from a major consumer confidence crisis after the Pan Pharmaceuticals recall earlier this year.
New Zealand's health minister Annette King is scheduled to sign a treaty with Australia today that will lead to a new agency to regulate herbs, vitamins and minerals in both countries, despite opposition from the Health Select Committee of its parliament.
The committee had been commissioned to investigate the trade in relation to its status compared to medicines. Reporting to government yesterday, it advised that strengthening domestic regulation would be the most appropriate method of governing complementary health-care products in New Zealand. The health minister had however already warned that joint regulation with Australia would significantly lower costs for its authorities.
Opposition parties, particularly the Greens, argue that the health minister allowed the health select committee to proceed with its inquiry with little intention of hearing the recommendations it made, wasting thousand of dollars of industry time and money.
Some New Zealand industry members have also cited fears that Australians will dominate the proposed agency: three of the five board members will be Australian residents, the board will be established under Australian laws, and the Australian Minister of Health has final sign-off on all appointments, says national lobby group Citizens for Health Choices.
The government argues that it is not handing over control to an Australian agency but setting up a new agency that will be 'more robust' than the current Australian regime.
But joint co-coordinator of Citizens for Health Gary Mabey said: "Dozens of New Zealand supplement businesses are threatened. Manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers will all face cost increases, and that could mean hundreds of their employees' jobs are at risk too. The industry could be facing multi-million dollar losses as a result of this regime."
Health food retailers participating in a Citizens for Health campaign will decorate their stores in black and cover supplement sections with black drapes to show the potential for damage of the proposed Trans-Tasman Therapeutic Goods Agency.