Australia hopes to dazzle Chinese buyers with surf and turf

Shanghai: On the rooftop of Shanghai’s luxury Kimpton Hotel, an ebullient Don Farrell sipped a Clare Valley shiraz as he hovered over a sizzling frypan, cooking up the famed surf and turf dish that is a mainstay on every good Australian RSL menu.

“It doesn’t get any better than this,” the trade minister remarked, framed by the city’s shimmering high-rise skyline.

The dish’s heroes were slabs of Queensland strip loin steak, served with South Australian rock lobsters, cooked by longtime Shanghai resident and professional chef Heidi Dugan, who was assisting the minister in the makeshift kitchen.

A cooking demonstration in Shanghai with Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell and chef Heidi Dugan.Credit: Lisa Visentin

A small coterie of Australian and Chinese guests, who watched the signing of a $30 million deal to sell Teys Australia beef on e-commerce platform Dingdong in 2025, were the live audience.

It was an image of peak rosy diplomacy that was inconceivable a few years ago, when Australian ministers couldn’t get their Chinese counterparts to take their calls let alone score an invite into the country.

This is the shiny side of the turbulent Australia-China relationship that the federal government is eager to champion as the vindication of its “stabilisation” agenda.

Farrell’s one-day blitz of Shanghai on Monday was a veritable festival of Australian wine, beef and lobster – the industries freed this year from punitive Chinese import bans and tariffs.

Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao had assured him in a meeting the evening before – the pair’s ninth meeting in 2½ years – that the last bans on lobster and beef would be removed by the year’s end, in line with the promise made to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese by China’s premier last month.

At the Shanghai headquarters of Treasury Wine Estates earlier, surrounded by bottles of its high-end Penfolds wine, Farrell oversaw the launch of a new Australia-China young winemakers talent training program that will send the first batch of Chinese trainees to work on South Australian vineyards next year.

There were euphemistic references to the “impediments” and “difficulties” of the past – which is the polite way of referring to the $20 billion of coercive trade sanctions slapped by China on Australian exports under the former Coalition government in retaliation for its call for an independent inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.

For years, the sanctions crippled businesses that were heavily reliant on the Chinese market. They were designed to serve as an enduring reminder of China’s ability to inflict punitive pain if the political relationship veers in a direction it didn’t like.

But this seemed a distant memory as platters of beef tartare, lamingtons, and lemon curd tartlets circulated at the business lunch featuring 260 Australian exporters who are in town for the annual China International Import Expo, a week-long trade extravaganza at which they will look to close lucrative deals with Chinese buyers.

“I say to all of the Chinese buyers here today, you won’t find any better products at this trade fair than Australian food, wine, manufacturers – anything you want!” the minister exhorted.

But looming over the event is the imminent US election, which on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) could usher in a new wave of trade protectionism if Donald Trump is elected.

Australian exporters could be swept up in Trump’s across-the-board tariffs of between 10-20 per cent on all overseas imports, unless the Albanese government can negotiate exemptions, as the Turnbull government did for steel exporters during Trump’s first presidency.

Farrell promotes the Australian wine industry in Shanghai. Credit: Lisa Visentin

China, meanwhile is facing the prospect of 60 per cent tariffs on its exports to the US, which could have flow-on effects for the Australian economy.

For now, Farrell says special exemptions for Australian businesses are not on his radar. Instead, the government will seek to flex its influence with its closest ally to persuade a potential Trump administration to abandon its tariff pledge altogether.

“We are not asking for an exemption. We are asking for a decision not to proceed with tariffs because we’re as concerned about the economies of other countries as we are concerned about our own economy,” he said in an interview.

“We’ve always had good relations, whether it be Republican or Democrat administrations, and so we would hope that we can have some influence on the direction of American policy after the election.”

Farrell has not had any meetings with key Trump allies so far, such as Robert Lighthizer, a prominent trade protectionist who is widely speculated to assume a key role as Treasury secretary, commerce secretary or top economic adviser in an incoming Trump administration.

Some of his colleagues have taken this pre-emptive step. The Australian Financial Review reported on Monday that Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles had separately held recent meetings with Trump loyalist Mike Pompeo.

For all the pomp of Monday’s blitz, political volatility remains the defining feature of the Australia-China relationship, which is regularly shaken by China’s increasing assertiveness in the Pacific region and espionage activities aimed at Australia and its allies – and could be further shaken in the aftermath of the US election if the next president pursues a more hawkish strategy on China.

“Irrespective of what happens in the United States, I’d like to see more trade with China. We hit a record last year of $327 billion, but I can’t see why that can’t be $400 billion,” Farrell said.

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