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SYDNEY: Australia will ask the World Trade Organization to investigate China’s punitive tariffs on barley imports, it said on Wednesday (December 16), in a significant escalation of tensions between the two nations.
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham announced the decision, saying Beijing’s 80 percent surcharge on Australia’s barley imports “is baseless” and “not supported by facts and evidence”, adding that it could be take similar measures in other sectors.
Relations between Australia and China are at their lowest point since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, when Beijing implemented a series of economic sanctions against Australian products.
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“We are very confident that based on the evidence, data and analysis that we have already gathered, Australia has an incredibly strong case,” Birmingham said.
Australia’s barley exports to China were worth around $ 1 billion a year before a recent drought, and are used primarily in brewing beer.
Experts say Beijing has pondered restricting Australian barley imports since 2018 amid concerns that China, which produces only about 20 percent of the barley it needs, is overly reliant on imports.
But the tariffs came against the backdrop of fierce disputes between Canberra and Beijing that have sparked fears that the measures were also politically motivated.
Each dispute has been labeled a technical problem, but many in Canberra believe the sanctions are retribution for Australia rejecting Chinese influence at home and in the Asia-Pacific.
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At least 13 Australian sectors have been subject to tariffs or some form of disruption, including barley, beef, coal, copper, cotton, lobsters, sugar, timber, tourism, universities, wine, wheat and wool.
Australia had so far avoided bringing the disputes to the Geneva-based organization, fearing that the resolution could take years, opening Australia up to claims of retaliation and further worsening relations.
The tensions with China have called into question Australia’s decades-old economic model, based on supplying raw materials for China’s rapid rise as a modern economy.
