THE People’s Republic of China has announced it will place tariffs on all Australian wine imports from this weekend.
It follows “preliminary findings” of a Chinese anti-dumping investigation into Australia’s wine exports that found that dumping existed and caused “substantial harm” to Chinese winemakers.
The preliminary tariffs are of between 107.1% to 212.1% depending upon the wine type.
China has accused Australian producers of selling wine for below the cost of production.
The investigation is not due to finish until next year.
But China’s Commerce Ministry announced that from November 28, importers of Australian wine entering China will need to pay temporary “anti-dumping security deposits”.
Agriculture minister David Littleproud said the decision by China was disappointing as “Australia produces amongst the least subsidised product in the world” and provided the second lowest level of farm subsidies in the OECD.
“Today’s decision is a seriously concerning development and one which Australia will be vigorously fighting against,” Mr Littleproud said.
“The Australian government categorically rejects any allegation that our wine producers are dumping product into China, and we continue to believe there is no basis or any evidence for these claims.”
Mr Littleproud said he would work with the wine industry and Chinese authorities as part of the ongoing dumping investigation “but we will of course consider all of our options moving forward”.
“Australian wine is hugely popular both in China and across the globe due to its high quality and we are confident that a full and thorough investigation will confirm this,” he said.
