China-Australia trade: Wine exporters hope to avoid tariff hit

Australia’s wine exporters had feared a new tariff could hit them as soon as this week. Here’s the state of play.

Wine exporters to China have been concerned they will be hit with new tariffs.

WINE exporters are hopeful they will avoid being hit with punishing interim tariffs as China continues its anti-dumping investigation.

While industry has been bracing for the possibility of tariffs as soon as this week, Australian Grape and Wine chief executive Tony Battaglene said there had been no word so far.

“You normally hear a bit of rumour ahead of it, so at the moment I think it is probably a good sign,” he said.

However, Mr Battaglene added that China has an “open chequebook” to apply tariffs at any time while its investigations are underway. China’s Alcoholic Drinks Association has also made an application for retrospective tariffs to apply to Australian wine, the outcome of which has yet to be finalised.

China launched an anti-dumping probe on Australian wine in containers of two litres or less in August this year, amid growing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

Fears that excessive tariffs would be placed on wine imports grew over the past fortnight following rumours the sector featured on a ‘hit list’ of seven import commodities China intended to ban, along with timber, barley and sugar.

While evidence of a ban has yet to surface, Mr Battaglene said there had been a definite slowdown of customs procedures for all shipments into China.

“How widespread it is and how long it will last, we don’t know,” he said.

“We’ve seen a lot of people are also not shipping though, because people are unwilling to take the risk.”

Meanwhile, China last week indefinitely banned Victorian timber imports after claiming to have found a pest beetle in shipments this year.

Bans had already been placed on Queensland timber for similar concerns.

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said the issue in Victoria appeared to relate to the effectiveness of fumigation treatments on bushfire-affected logs.