National Farmers’ Federation says dispute needs to be resolved as Australian ministers refuse to budge on demand for Covid-19 origins inquiry
The National Farmers’ Federation has raised fears of disruptions to agricultural trade between Australia and China amid growing trade tensions.
It follows China imposing a ban on beef supplied by four Australian abattoirs and Beijing’s proposal to impose crippling tariffs on barley imports.
The National Farmers’ Federation said it was concerned about disruptions to agricultural trade, noting that China was an important market for Australian products including wool, cotton, grain, dairy, seafood and horticulture.
Its president, Fiona Simson, said both parties should work together to resolve their differences as soon as possible.
“Two-thirds of Australia’s farm production is exported. Almost one-third of this, 28%, is exported to China, including 18% of our total beef production and 49% of our barley.
“We recognise in relationships as significant as that between Australia and China, from time to time, issues do arise.
“When they do it is important that both parties work together in a respectful manner to, as soon as possible, resolve the challenge, to an end that is satisfactory to both.”
Daniel Gschwind, the chief executive of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, also voiced concern about the deteriorating relationship, saying periods of trade conflict were “never helpful for anyone” and his sector hoped the issues could be resolved “in an orderly and diplomatic way”.
Australian ministers stood firm on Tuesday on their push for an international investigation into the origins and handling of Covid-19, which had angered Beijing, but attempted to lower the diplomatic temperature by playing down the wider repercussions of the red meat and barley actions.
The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, described the latest complaints from Beijing as “highly technical” while the agriculture minister, David Littleproud, said it was a reminder for all exporters that they must meet local standards and be good trading partners.
It is understood four Australian abattoirs – three in Queensland and one in New South Wales – were surprised to receive notifications from General Administration of Customs China on Monday afternoon.
Their permits to ship products into the country had been suspended on the grounds of alleged breaches of China’s labelling and health certificate requirements.
Guardian Australia understands the issues may include problems like a mismatch between a label on a carton describing its contents and other documentation.
The four targeted abattoirs are responsible for about one-fifth of Australia’s beef exports to China. Overall, China is Australia’s number one market for beef by volume, accounting for nearly a third of total beef exports.
Birmingham said the agricultural sector was understandably concerned about the move as thousands of jobs were connected to those meat processing facilities.
The trade minister said it was “disappointing that no notification was given prior to that suspension taking effect today”, adding that they related to “minor technical errors” that in some cases dated back more than a year.
“But we will work as hard as we can with this industry, just as we are with the barley industry, to get the right outcome for them, which is the reinstatement of those permits,” Birmingham told reporters in Canberra.
He noted that six Australian meat processors had faced very similar suspensions from China in 2017 and ultimately had their permits reinstated. That took several months to resolve.
The Australian Meat Industry Council said it and its members were “well aware that China has strict requirements for technical matters, including labelling, and the Australian meat industry takes these concerns exceptionally seriously”.
Birmingham declined to speculate on whether China may have more actions in the pipeline and demurred when asked whether Australia was in the beginning stages of a trade war.
“Well, Australia’s not in any sort of war,” he told reporters.
“Our intention is to work as cooperatively as we can with our partners right across the region and the world.”
The two countries have been entangled in a messy dispute over Australia’s call for an independent Covid-19 inquiry – a move Beijing had claimed was part of a campaign against China.
The dispute intensified late last month when China’s ambassador, Cheng Jingye, suggested in a newspaper interview that Chinese tourists and students may rethink their plans to visit Australia in the future “if the mood is going from bad to worse”, while consumers may also decide against buying Australian wine and beef.
The Australian government pushed back at those comments by saying “economic coercion” was inappropriate.
China’s commerce ministry is expected to finalise a decision next week on a plan to impose tariffs of around 80% on barley imported from Australia after an 18-month investigation into claims the industry was “dumping” the product at a lower price than at home.
There is speculation in Canberra that the barley move may, at least in part, be in response to Australia’s past moves to impose anti-dumping measures against Chinese steel and aluminium imports.
But a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, Zhao Lijian, said in a regular press conference on Monday that “this is a normal trade remedy investigation” and China was moving ahead with the barley review in line with World Trade Organization rules.
The Australian Labor Party’s trade spokesperson, Madeleine King, said the meat and barley developments were concerning and it was “in both of our countries’ interests to have a productive trading relationship”.
Labor continues to support the call for an international inquiry, but argues the government should have handled it better by securing support from several partners before announcing the push.
China is Australia’s largest trading partner, with the major Australian exports being iron ore, gas, coal and gold.
On the services side, China was responsible for $12bn of education-related travel in Australia in 2018-19, while personal travel was worth a further $4.3bn, according to data compiled by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The tourism sector – which has already been heavily affected by coronavirus restrictions – hopes the trade dispute doesn’t escalate.
“Clearly as an industry we have a strong interest in rebuilding our tourism trade relationship with China,” Gschwind said.
“Countries can obviously have different views on things and that’s life, but ultimately it’s in everyone’s interest in the long term to resolve these issues amicably.”