The wine tariff imposed by Beijing has doubled or tripled the price of Australian wine, preventing exporters from entering the Chinese market.

The Australian government said on Saturday that it is filing a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization over China’s anti-dumping duties on Australian wine exports. Further escalate the trade deadlock with Beijing.

“The government will continue to vigorously defend the interests of Australian wine makers and use the established WTO to resolve our differences,” Minister of Trade, Tourism and Investment Danthanzai and Minister of Agriculture David Little Proud in a joint news Said in the draft. .

After Australia banned Huawei from its nascent 5G broadband network in 2018, relations with China have deteriorated, and since Canberra called for an international investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, relations with China have deteriorated.

As Australia’s largest trading partner, China imposes tariffs on Australian products, including wine and barley, and restricts the import of Australian beef, coal and grapes. The United States calls this “economic coercion.”

Last year, Australia formally appealed to the WTO, requesting a review of China’s decision to impose high tariffs on imported Australian barley.

Wine tariffs are twice or three times the price The Australian government earlier stated that this prevented exporters from entering the Chinese market.

Industry data shows that in the four months from December to March last year, Australian winemakers only exported 12 million Australian dollars (9 million US dollars) of wine to China, compared with 325 million Australian dollars (243 million US dollars) in the same period last year. It proved that the high new tariffs have almost wiped out their largest export market.

‘Dispute Resolution System’

In early June, Prime Minister Scott Morrison called on the WTO to resolve the deadlock between the two countries. A few days later, he won the support of the Group of Seven and took a firmer stance on China’s growing influence on global trade.

On Saturday, the government stated that Canberra was still prepared to cooperate with Beijing despite complaints.

“Australia is still willing to approach China directly to resolve this issue,” Tehan and Littleproud said in their press release.

Saturday’s move came a week after the G7 summit of advanced economies responded to Australia’s call for a tougher stance on China’s trade practices and its more assertive stance on a global scale.

The G7 summit ended on June 12, announcing the US-led plan to counter China’s trillion-dollar “Belt and Road” initiative, which is a sign of its efforts to expand its global economic influence.

The group promised to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment for low- and middle-income countries. “Rebuilding a Better World” (B3W) project.

B3W is seen as a direct competition with China’s efforts, which has been widely criticized for putting small countries on unmanageable debt.

Morrison participated in the summit as part of the G7+ program, which also convened the leaders of South Korea, South Africa and India, and made it clear that he would push other countries to take joint actions against China’s aggressive trade policies.

“The most practical way to resolve economic coercion is to restore the binding dispute settlement system of the global trade agency,” he said in a speech before the summit.

He said: “If the coercive behavior has no consequences, there is almost no motive for restraint.”

Morrison received clear support from the United States in his administration’s confrontation with China, as well as from French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Paris after the G7 meeting.