Scott Morrison plays down China’s latest meat ban

Scott Morrison has played down a new Chinese import ban on Australia’s oldest single-family-owned meat processor in regional Queensland.

John Dee chief executive Warren Stiff, left, at the abattoir on Friday. Picture: Dan Peled

Scott Morrison has played down a new Chinese import ban on Australia’s oldest single-family-owned meat processor in regional Queensland, urging operators to get their “paperwork right” or risk being denied entry to China.

The decision came a day after the Prime Minister announced he would legislate new powers allowing his government to tear up Victoria’s multi-million-dollar Belt and Road Initiative agreement with Beijing.

Chinese state media reported that banned drug chloramphenicol was found in the beef from the John Dee abattoir, with Chinese Customs notifying Australian counterparts and asking for an investigation followed by a report back to China within 45 days.

The meatworks is the largest private employer in Warwick, which has faced years of severe drought, crippling primary producers and impacting the region’s economy. About 30 per cent of the company’s meat products are exported to China.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud — whose electorate of Maranoa is home to the meat processor — said John Dee was working to trace how the contamination of the meat occurred.

“That element identified by the Chinese is naturally present in some feed,” Mr Littleproud told The Weekend Australian. “They are tracing it back to make sure of the source of it so it can be dealt with quickly.”

Mr Littleproud said he was taking the Chinese complaint at face value. “You can’t just make this stuff up, you have to physically demonstrate it through scientific testing, and that’s what the department is working with John Dee and Chinese officials on,” he said. “On face value, it seems quite legitimate.”

Mr Morrison said: “It’s very important to get the paperwork right. In these times, you don’t want to create situations where if your paperwork’s wrong that can prevent entry. You should expect that if it’s not right it won’t get in. We have been working with industry to that end.”

Multiple calls to John Dee management on Friday were not returned. The company’s chief executive officer, Warren Stiff, also declined to comment but was spotted in meetings at the meat processing plant.

This month, Beijing launched a fresh anti-dumping investigation into Australian wine, sending shares in ASX-listed Treasury Wine Estates into a tailspin. The wine producer’s shares have plummeted 27 per cent from a high of $12.85 this month to $9.35.

The anti-dumping probe — which will examine if Australia sold wine to China too cheaply — comes months after Beijing imposed punitive 80 per cent tariffs on Australian barley after a similar investigation.

Opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said he suspected it was “not a coincidence that the latest victim operates in the electorate of the Agriculture Minister”.

“The Prime Minister had the audacity at the Bush Summit today to warn beef processors to get their paperwork right. In other words, he’s blaming them for his own mishandling of our trading relationship with China,” he said.