China to impose anti-dumping measures on wine imported from Australia

Diplomatic tensions rise between Australia and China due to anti – dumping measures imposed by China on Australian wine, Australia said it was “extremely disappointed” with china’s decision to impose preliminary tariffs.

David Littleproud, Australia’s Agriculture Minister said

“Today’s decision is a seriously concerning development and one which Australia will be vigorously fighting against,”

“The Australian Government categorically rejects any allegation that our wine producers are dumping product into China, and we continue to believe there is no basis or any evidence for these claims.”

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) China is Australia’s top export market, worth $104 billion in 2019; Tension over the current commodities trade could seriously damage Australia’s economy

Australian shipments of barley, coal and beef worth billions of dollars have been impacted by the recent measures. Australia’s top export, Iron ore has so far been spared from any crossfire.

According to Australian government data Wine exports to China hit a record $1.3billion making it the biggest market by the value of Australia.

Australia’s trade minister Simon Birmingham commented on the current measure as “grossly unfair, unwarranted, unjustified”, and called the dumping accusation “erroneous in fact and in substance,”

Simon Birmingham also mentioned that Canberra would continue to raise with the World Trade Organization “our concerns about the number and cumulative effect of China’s trade sanctions against Australia.”

The relationship between two countries has rapidly worsened over the year; Beijing has produced a list of complaints about Australian policies from calling an investigation into the origins of Coronavirus and to banning Huawei’s participation in 5G.

Indian merchant ships carrying coal from Australia has been detained in Chinese ports since the summer, Zhao Lijian, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the authorities had found “many cases where imported coal didn’t meet our environmental protection standards.”

Scott Morrison, The Prime Minister has hit back stating Australia “won’t be compromising” on issues including foreign investment laws and 5g.