Australia takes wine dispute with China to

WTO as sales plunge

Wine tariffs imposed by Beijing doubled or tripled the price of Australian wine
and made the Chinese market unviable for exporters.

Australian winemakers shipped just 12 million Australian dollars ($9m) of wines to China
in the four months from December to March, from $325 million Australian dollars ($243m)
a year earlier [Stringer/AFP]
19 Jun 2021

The Australian government said on Saturday it was lodging a

formal complaint with the World Trade Organization about
China’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on Australian wine
exports, escalating further the trade standoff with Beijing.

“The government will continue to vigorously defend the interests

of Australian wine makers using the established system in the
WTO to resolve our differences,” Dan Tehan, minister for trade,
tourism and investment, said in a joint news release with the
Agriculture Minister David Littleproud.

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Relations with China, already rocky after Australia banned Huawei

from its nascent 5G broadband networking in 2018, have
worsened since Canberra called for an international inquiry into
the origins of the coronavirus, first reported in central China last
year.

China, Australia’s largest trading partner, responded by imposing

tariffs on Australian commodities, including wine and barley and
limited imports of Australian beef, coal and grapes, moves
described by the United States as “economic coercion”.
 

Last year, Australia launched a formal appeal to the WTO seeking

a review of China’s decision to impose hefty tariffs on imports of
Australian barley.

The wine tariffs doubled or tripled its price and made the Chinese
market unviable for exporters, the Australian government had said
earlier.

Australian winemakers shipped just 12 million Australian dollars

(US$9m) of wines to China in the four months from December to
March, from 325 million Australian dollars (US$243m) a year
earlier, industry figures showed, confirming that hefty new tariffs
have all but wiped out their biggest export market.

‘Dispute-settlement system’
Earlier in June, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on the WTO
to address the standoff between the two countries and days later
won the support of the Group of Seven countries for a tougher
stance against China’s growing impact on global trade.

On Saturday, the government said that despite the complaint,

Canberra was ready to cooperate with Beijing.

“Australia remains open to engaging directly with China to resolve

this issue,” Tehan and Littleproud said in their release.

Saturday’s move came just a week after a summit of the G7

grouping of advanced economies echoed Australia’s call for a
tougher stand against China’s trade practices and its more
assertive stance globally.