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China has imposed tariffs of up to 200 percent on Australian wines, which has hampered exports and caused one of the country’s largest wine exporters to suspend trade.
China’s Ministry of Commerce issued a preliminary decision on an investigation into Australian wine on Friday after China’s beverage industry accused Australian producers of dumping wine into China at a discount rate, reducing competitiveness. from local producers.
The ministry announced that it would apply a tariff rate of between 107 and 212 percent to Australian wines.
The ministry said it had conducted investigations in strict accordance with relevant Chinese laws and regulations and the rules of the World Trade Organization.
Emirates
Australia has the largest market share in China of all the wine exporting nations.
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The Australian government and the local wine industry have strongly denied the allegations.
The trade strike is the latest in a long line of blows to Australian exports by Beijing this year.
Diplomatic disputes over Australia’s requests for an independent investigation into the coronavirus and China’s actions in the South China Sea and Hong Kong culminated last week when the Chinese embassy issued a list of 14 complaints containing Australia’s political positions.
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said on Friday that Australia will not compromise its political positions in response to trade threats.
“For that any Australian government of any political orientation is chosen. We will never, never compromise any of those values and principles. We are a sovereign nation, we expect to be treated with the respect of a sovereign nation,” he added. he said.
“We will not be around to turn.”
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Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said he has refused to budge after the latest coup.
Australia exports $ 1.2 billion of wine to China each year and industry leaders have scheduled urgent talks on Friday to discuss China’s tariff measure.
Australian Grape and Wine CEO Tony Battaglene said that wine produced by companies that registered for China’s anti-dumping investigation would receive a tariff of between 107% and 167%.
Australia’s largest wine company, Treasury Wine Estates, a major exporter to China, was among the companies that participated in the investigation.
The Treasury paused on Friday when news of the tariffs emerged.
“We don’t see that it is justified and we are obviously deeply concerned about what it does,” Battaglene said of the tariff measure.
“Anyway, it’s all pretty academic around those levels. Because once it’s 160, 200 percent, essentially it will be very difficult to sell a product that consumers are willing to pay for,” he said.
Australia has the largest market share in China of all the wine exporting nations. Australia also has many wine producers who export wine only to China.
“I think it will have a serious impact,” Battaglene said.
