Canada and Russia want in on barley row

Canada and Russia have moved to join Australia’s World Trade Organisation dispute with China as third parties.

Russell Burges and wife Rebekah with their children Tayla and Rylie on their barley farm at Meckering, 130km east of Perth. Picture: Colin Murty

Canada and Russia have moved to join Australia’s World Trade ­Organisation dispute with China as third parties, raising concerns over the legal and global trade ­impacts of Beijing’s tariffs on Australian barley exports.

Despite major barley-producing nations benefiting from Australian farmers being frozen out of the Chinese market, they have formally requested to join WTO talks after Canberra launched action last month.

Canada, a key Five Eyes security partner that has experienced heightened tensions with China, told the WTO it had a “substantial trade interest” in the barley dispute. “Given the significant amount of trade in barley between Australia and China, China’s trade remedies measures could have ­effects on global trade in barley more generally, including impacts on Canadian barley,” its government submission said.

With China accounting for 71.7 per cent of its total barley ­export market, the Canadian government said it had an interest in “assuring that trade remedy measures are applied in accordance with the WTO agreements”.

Russia said as a leading supplier of barley, accounting for almost 11 per cent of the global export market, it retained a “substantial trade and systemic legal interest in these consultations”.

Trade Minister Dan Tehan, who took over from Simon Birmingham last month and has written to his Chinese counterpart in an attempt to ease trade tensions with Beijing, said under WTO rules, Canada and Russia had ­requested to join consul­tations as third parties.

“As required under those rules, both members have outlined their ‘substantial trade interest’ in the consultations.

“As the responding party, China has discretion as to whether it will agree to allow those members to join the consul­tations,” Mr Tehan said.

The Australian understands other nations were considering joining as third parties to the WTO complaint, a common practice for countries with direct interests in the outcomes of dispute negoti­ations which can typically take several years to resolve.

Trade Minister Dan Tehan. Picture: AAP

While the federal government continues working with the barley sector to “identify and provide information on alternative markets”, Mr Tehan said he hoped China’s appointment of a new commerce minister could open up constructive engagement.

“There are many ways that we can constructively engage across the trade and investment liberalisation path,” he said.

GrainGrowers chief executive David McKeon said there was “heightened” interest in Australia’s WTO dispute with China and welcomed other nations looking into the issue. “The WTO process is the ­opportunity to have open conver­sations around the details of the international and legal aspects of the barley tariffs applied by China,” he said.

“When countries apply tariffs or other trade restrictions in­consistent with WTO rules, it’s in the best interests of all countries to have clarity around how those ­restrictions have been applied. It’s in the interests of all major trading nations.”

Mr McKeon said Australian barley producers had pursued new market opportunities, with “large quantities” heading to Saudi ­Arabia and growing export potential in African and South American countries.

West Australian grain handler CBH Group last week sent a 35,000-tonne shipment of malt barley to Mexico after it lowered tariffs under the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

Mr Tehan said Austrade had worked closely with CBH Group to “fast-track its expansion into Latin America with market intelligence and local contacts”.

Australian wheat growers, who have achieved bumper crops this season, are also enjoying the short-term benefits of a spike in global wheat prices following moves by Russia to slap levies on its wheat exporters to drive down domestic food prices.