×
Menu
Search

Australia’s $1 Billion Wine Industry In Trouble – China Officially Slaps 218.4% Import Duties For 5 Years Effective Sunday



Pin It


Mar 26 2021
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
Pinterest
Linked In

On Friday (March 26), China’s Ministry of Commerce announced that import duties between 116.2% and 218.4% will be imposed on Australian wines effective Sunday (March 28). The massive tariffs arrived after the ministry concluded that domestic wine industry had been hurt by the dumping of cheap Aussie wine. Worse, the anti-dumping punishment will last for 5 years.

 

The ministry said in a press release – “China’s domestic wine industry has suffered material damage, and there is a causal relationship between the dumping and subsidies and the material damage. The Ministry of Commerce conducted investigations in strict accordance with relevant Chinese laws and regulations and World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, and made the final ruling.”

 

In August 2020, China began a second investigation into imports of Australian wine, just after announcing a separate “anti-dumping” inquiry into its wine industry 2 weeks earlier.   

Trade War - China Officially Imposed 220 Percent Tariffs On Australia Wine

By November, the Chinese government announced its initial finding, and preliminarily imposed anti-dumping tax – in the form of deposits – which ranged from 107.1% to 212.1%. Today’s official tariff rate is clearly higher than the preliminary tariffs. Additionally, the ministry also slapped anti-subsidy duties between 6.3% and 6.4%, but decided to drop it to prevent double taxation.

 

Among the major wine exporters, Treasury Wine Estates – owner of the popular Penfolds label – has been slapped with an anti-dumping duty of 175.6%. Yellow Tail, an Australian brand of wine produced by Casella Family Brands will pay a 170.9% tariff. Accolade Wines, which can be traced its beginning to Thomas Hardy and Sons, a company founded in 1853, have to pay the 167.1% import duties.

 

Other Australian wine exporters will pay up to 218.4% duties. But the damage is already done as far back as November 2020. Australian wine exporters watched in horror as stockpiles of wine stuck in warehouses thanks to “unofficial” boycott from its biggest customer. They had been warned by Chinese importers that shipments of Australian wine will not clear customs.

Treasury Wine Estates Wine - Penfolds Premium Brand

The custom clearance problems saw how more than 3,000 litres of wine from Penfolds and nearly 20,000 litres from Badger’s Brook Estate were detained at Chinese ports in January alone. With the new tariffs to take off officially this Sunday, Chinese wine traders said the 5-year anti-dumping punishment could completely wipe out Australian wine’s competitiveness in the Chinese market.

 

While large and established winemakers like Treasury Wine Estates may survive, small Australian wine producers will definitely collapse. Even Treasury Wine, the winemaker with total revenue of A$2. 

 

China does not need wines from the land Down Under, but the same cannot be said about Australian wine growers.   

Treasury Wine Estates Wine - China Market

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials told Senate Estimates the value of Australian trade with China for almost all industries has plummeted by 40% since a trade dispute exploded between the two countries. And wine exports had fallen to less than $1 million in January, from a high of $164 million last October – a plunge of more than 99%.

 

Last month, several months after Beijing started its trade war against Canberra, the Australian wine giant Treasury Wine reported a   

 

Australian Grape and Wine chief executive Tony Battaglene said – “When you’re at 200% you’re not viable and when you’re at 215%, you’re even less viable, so the market remains closed to Australian wine. We know we’re going to have a tough couple of years. The real pressure has come on those people who solely export into China and we have 1,000 businesses set up to do that”.

Australia Wine

Everything started when the Australian government chose to support  

 

   

 

    

US President Donald Trump and Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison

Last April, Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye warned the Morrison government that its dangerous manoeuvre would spark a consumer boycott against

 

By November, the situation was so bad that Chinese import agents warned their clients they had been informed that no Australian shipments of   

 

And by December, China’s top economic planner had granted approval to power plants to import coal without clearance restrictions, the world’s  

China-Australia Diplomatic Dispute - Coal Ban

In the same month, Australia’s Trade Minister Simon Birmingham confirmed that Australia has launched a formal complaint with the WTO over heavy tariffs – 80.5% – imposed by China on its barley exports back in May. The tariffs are expected to cost Australian farmers a whopping A$2.5 billion over the next 5 years. It would be interesting to see if Canberra will also complain about the latest tariffs on wines.

 

But even if China has breached the rules set under WTO (World Trade Organization) or even China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), there’s very little Australia can do. Mr Birmingham admits it could take years to settle the disputes between the two countries. Australia currently has 106 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations ongoing related to Chinese products.

 

Elizabeth Sheargold, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Wollongong School of Law in Australia, said – “ChAFTA, like most free trade agreements,  either party to the treaty to purchase goods or services from the other. 

China-Australia Trade War

In a nutshell, experts said neither country appears to have violated specific rules of the trade pact contained in WTO or ChAFTA simply because the deals are They are just a set of trading guidelines and rules that are mutually agreed upon by China and Australia. 

 

China is Australia’s biggest trading partner – about one-third of the country’s total exports goes to the Chinese, contributing   Perhaps the Aussie, the U.S.’ “deputy sheriff” in the Asia-Pacific region could redirect A$1.2 billion of its wine exports to allies such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and European Union.

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …



Pin It

FinanceTwitter SignOff
If you enjoyed this post, what shall you do next? Consider:



Like FinanceTwitter Tweet FinanceTwitter Subscribe Newsletter   Leave Comment Share With Others


Comments

I can’t say I’ve any sympathy for Ozland, its PM, an arsel*cker of Trump overdid his moronic best to piss off China the country with the hands that feed Ozland, couldn’t control his mouth with continuously offending China even when he should have been busy doing damage limitation when his parliament was exposed as a sordid brothel.

Well, I’m not one bit surprised to see the Chinese shaft Ozland nicely with eye-watering tariffs for Ozzie plonk. It doesn’t look the end yet of the economic war by China, China wants to hear the pips scream with Ozland’s dumb convict escalation of the trade war.

I’d gladly lend a hand with easing Uyghur issues that are dear to them angmohs, I am switching entirely to drinking wines made in Xinjiang, Alhamdulilah! Xinjiang wine is actually very good, some have top international reviews and have won top prizes. I won’t miss Oz wine one bit, I don’t think the Ozzies would either, the peasants like fcuking lager!

I shall sit back and watch Oz wine industry collapse fast, Penfolds up completely, Ameen! I’m sure all you guys who drink wine would raise a raise a glass of Xinjiang wine watch the Oz economy go down the pan. Xinjiang wine labels are Niya, Sun time, West Region, all genuine challenges to foreign wine especially Oz ones. There’s too much Oz wine here, surely the dumping is not meant to threaten our homebrew beer, and toddy industry.

Wonder what the Ozzies would do with the barley China doesn’t want? Surely not use them for brewing those fcuking awful Oz lagers…

Ganbei folks, and Gan nin nei to the Ozzies!

And wine exports had fallen to less than $1 million in January, from a high of $164 million last October – a plunge of more than 99%.
======
Is the computation correct?

Leave a Reply

(required)

(required)(will not be published)