China fires new trade shots with barley import suspension

Beijing fires new salvo in our worsening trade war, suspending some barley imports over ‘harmful weeds’ found in grain.

China has fired a new shot in its trade war with Australia with a new suspension of barley imports. Picture: AFP

China has fired a new salvo in the worsening trade war with Australia, banning some barley imports over what were reported as “harmful weeds” in the grain.

China suspended imports from Australia’s biggest barley exporter, Perth-headquartered CBH Group, as trade tensions continue to escalate between Beijing and Canberra.

CBH is the second Australian agribusiness targeted in four days after the communist regime banned imports from a Queensland abattoir in Agriculture Minister David Littleproud’s electorate, saying Chinese customs had detected a drug used to treat eye infections in dogs and cats in the beef.

CBH Group claims to be the largest farming co-operative, owned and controlled by 3900 Western Australian grain growers. In the past five years, China has bought 60 to 70 per cent of Australian-grown barley.

The bans follow Scott Morrison’s announcement on Thursday he would legislate to tear up Victoria’s multi-million-dollar Belt and Road Initiative agreement with Beijing and other agreements found to be against the national interest.

Diplomatic tensions have simmered for months after the Prime Minister spearheaded a push for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, which spread from the Chinese city of Wuhan to the rest of the world from January.

China’s The Global Times newspaper, ran several pieces attacking Australia on Tuesday.

In one negative article, it invoked former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s 1980s gibe that unless Australia opened its economy and lowered unemployment, it risked becoming “the poor white trash of Asia’’.

The Global Times article said: “Indeed further decoupling from China would not send China back but will only make sure the former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s famous statement i(is) more like to come true.’’

Another article referred to Australia as a “nervously alerted bird’’ when trying to deal with China, while a cartoon depicted a panda grabbing a kangaroo by the chin.

Chinese customs said in a statement late on Tuesday it had suspended barley imports from CBH as harmful “pests”, referred to as weeds, were found in the product. China has notified Australia of the suspension.

“Recently, Chinese customs have successively detected Bromus rigidus, Avena ludoviciana, Aegilops cylindrica, Solanum carolinense, Emex australis, and Cernuella virgata, wheat streak mosaic virus and other quarantine pests from imported Australian barley,” the statement said.

“In order to prevent the introduction of harmful organisms, in accordance with the ‘Entry and Exit Animal and Plant Quarantine Law of the People’s Republic of China’ … the general administration of customs has revoked registration of Australian company CBH Grain Pty Ltd due to serious violations of the regulations, suspended its barley imports, and notified the Australian authorities of the relevant situation.”

Challenge looming

A CBH spokesman said the co-operative would challenge the ban, saying it had not found any evidence of harmful weeds or contamination in its barley shipments to China.

“The CBH Group has been advised by the Australian government that CBH Grain Pty Ltd has been suspended from exporting barley to China, effective from September 1 2020. The Australian government was notified of this by the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China yesterday, Monday August 31, and CBH was subsequently advised today (Tuesday),” the spokesman said.

“CBH has not found any evidence to support these claims. CBH confirms that all grain shipments to China have met all government phytosanitary export requirements and is therefore very disappointed to hear of the suspension,” the CBH spokesman said.

“We will work with the Australian government to challenge the suspension.”

Negotiating

Since May, CBH has been negotiating with alternate export markets after China imposed punitive 80 per cent tariffs on Australian barley.

While Mr Morrison played down last week’s ban on beef from John Dee’s abattoir at Warwick in southeast Queensland, saying meat processors needed to get their “paperwork right” or risk being denied entry to China, John Dee chief executive Warren Stiff insisted the company’s beef was clean.

“Dependent upon the particular lab testing procedure used, false positives are reasonably likely to occur,” Mr Stiff said.

“A confirmatory second test is scientifically valid under generally accepted residue testing programs.”

In early May, the Chinese ambassador to Australia threatened a boycott of Australian products and industries in response to Mr Morrison’s push for an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus.

Last week, Beijing’s deputy ambassador to Australia, Wang Xining, likened the worsening relations with Australia to a bad marriage and said Mr Morrison had offended the Chinese people with his push for an inquiry into COVID-19.

China has since launched an anti-dumping investigation into Australian wine, sending Treasury Wine Estates shares plunging 28 per cent in the past two weeks.

The trade tensions have left many businesses scrambling to find alternative markets for their produce.

Grain growers estimated Beijing’s 80 per cent tariff on barley would cost regional communities at least $500m.

Tension

The tariffs threaten to cruel the Australian-China barley trade, which accounted for the majority of Australia’s barley sales. In the past five years, China has bought 60 to 70 per cent of Australian-grown barley.

Days after the 80 per cent tariffs were announced in May, CBH chief marketing and trading officer Jason Craig said the co-operative had long-term relationships with Japan, which is Australia’s second biggest buyer of barley, and Vietnam.

“CBH will continue to develop and strengthen relationships with alternative markets to ensure maximum value is returned to Western Australian barley growers,” Mr Craig said at the time.

“CBH is active in long-term markets like Japan and Vietnam for high quality malt barley and is developing relationships in new markets like India.”