Lin Tiangui, a representative of Winston Wine, looks at bottles of wine produced from Winston Wine’s own Australian winery at one of its stores in Shanghai, China on October 18, 2011.
Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | In the image | Corbis History | beautiful pictures
Australia’s top wine industry body Wine Australia will close its only physical office in China after larger China sales can’t stand Beijing’s forbidden tasks.
A Wine Australia spokesperson said: “Wine Australia has made the difficult decision to close our physical office in Shanghai. This decision follows extensive consultation with the wine industry and Australian grapes and based on the current environment and market opportunity”.
“Wine Australia will continue to maintain our brand presence in China through our wine commerce and social media-facing consumer channels, and will continue to work closely with Work closely with trade representatives in the market on marketing and branding campaigns.”
Trade of A$1.2 billion a year ($830 million) fell to just over A$200 million at the end of March, a loss attributed to tensions between the two countries.
Wine Australia said it would continue to operate in China as it does in other markets, through “relationships with key marketing and reseller partners in the market, trade show organizers and networking.” educational grid”, a format that tends to be used for smaller commercial markets.
The industry body is responsible for supporting Australia’s wine industry through research and development and the establishment of new export markets.
However, China’s once envious trade with Australian exporters was dealt a blow in 2020 when Beijing opened an investigation into alleged dumping of cheap Australian wine in China. Country.
Beijing then imposed anti-dumping duties ranging from 116.2% to 218.4%, making Australian wines uncompetitive in the Chinese market. The matter is being adjudicated at the World Trade Organization.
Anti-dumping and countervailing duties are protective taxes that governments levy on imports that they deem below fair market value, often at prices below the domestic market. of the exporting country.
The punitive tariffs are part of a series of China’s trade-restrictive measures on Australian exports including barley, coal and lobster.
Many of these restrictions were informally enacted after the two nations fell apart when Canberra called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus without consulting North Korean diplomacy. Terrible.
Australia’s national wine producers’ association, Australian Grape and Wine, said the closure of its Shanghai office did not signal “the end of an era.” It should be noted that despite the challenges, exporters want to return to the Chinese market and Chinese demand for Australian wine is still growing.
“We understand and support Wine Australia’s decision, based on operational requirements,” said AGW General Manager Lee McLean.
“We also note that demand for Australian wine in China remains strong and we hope Chinese consumers will have the opportunity to enjoy Australian wine again at some point in the future. .”
Australian exporters struggled with alcohol sales in China after the tariffs were imposed, data from Wine Australia for the 12 months ended March. It has since redirected sales to other markets such as the US and UK, but still faces pandemic-related challenges such as supply chain disruptions and global shipping.
The UK has since usurped China as the top destination for Australian wine exports, although that market is only half the size of the Chinese market at its peak.
Australia exports 60% of its alcohol production and previously China accounted for about 40% of those exports.
But there have been some signs of thawing between the two major trading partners in recent weeks following the election of a new Labor government in Australia.
Earlier this month, new Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles and Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe met on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, also known as the “Asia Security Summit”. “.
Before that, there was no ministerial visit or conversation between the two countries for several years.
Political observers also suggested that Marles’ speech at the summit showed there had been a shift in Canberra’s tone towards Beijing. Using less hawkish rhetoric, Marles recognizes the reality of China’s rise but frames it in terms of the responsibility that comes with it. Nick Bisley, professor of international relations at La Trobe University wrote in an opinion piece last week.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also sent a congratulatory message to new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after his victory in the Australian federal election at the end of May and in turn received “a letter of appreciation”.
