Australia’s trade chief says China’s wine tariff review on track

Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell is confident that a review of heavy tariffs on wine exports to China will be completed by the end of March, the latest test of improving relations between Beijing and Canberra.

Farrell, in his interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday, said he met with his Chinese counterpart Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization’s conference in the United Arab Emirates on Monday.

“He made it clear that their processes were on track and we would get a result by the end of March,” Farrell told ABC of his meeting with Wang. The Australian official said he hopes to know the result in “a few weeks.”

Warming ties between Canberra and Beijing were recently clouded after Australian writer Yang Hengjun was handed a suspended death sentence in Beijing in early February. Monday’s meeting was the first face-to-face ministerial talks between the two governments since Yang’s sentencing, and Farrell said he had raised the Australian writer’s case with his counterpart.

“We will continue to push on every occasion that we meet our Chinese counterparts for his release and his return to Australia,” the trade chief said.

The five-month review into the tariffs on Australian wine was initiated by the Chinese government in late November. A similar review process with tariffs placed on Australian barley earlier in 2023 had led to a lifting of the sanctions.