China-Australia wine dispute: WTO agrees to investigate China’s tariffs after Beijing blocked it last month

Canada, Britain, New Zealand among countries that have reserved spots as third parties on the WTO’s dispute-settlement panel, Geneva-based trade official says

Beijing has imposed steep anti-dumping duties on Australian wine for nearly a year amid an ongoing trade dispute

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The World Trade Organization’s dispute-settlement body says a new panel will investigate the nearly year-long dispute over China’s tariffs on Australian wine. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:30am, 27 Oct 2021Updated: 5:41am, 27 Oct 2021

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has agreed to establish a dispute-settlement panel to address Canberra’s complaint over Beijing’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on imports of wine from Australia, after a first request was blocked by China in September.

During a meeting in Geneva on Tuesday, the WTO’s dispute-settlement body said the new panel will investigate the dispute, with 15 countries – including Canada, Britain and New Zealand – reserving a spot on the panel as third parties, according to a Geneva-based trade official.

This is the second time Australia has requested a panel to investigate its complaint over China’s tariffs after it was first struck out by China in late September. Australia lodged its complaint in June.

Australian wine had been subjected to interim Chinese duties since November amid a tense political stand-off between the countries. And in March, Beijing finalised the imposition of duties of between 116.2 per cent and 218.4 per cent on Australian wines in containers of two litres or less for five years.

The prohibitive duties had rendered Australian wine uncompetitive in the Chinese market. According to an update last week by industry body Wine Australia, since the interim tariffs were imposed in November the value of Australian wine exports to China had fallen by 77 per cent to A$274 million (US$205 million).

Australia said during the WTO meeting on Tuesday that it had repeated its request for a panel after failing to establish contact with China and was disappointed that it was “not seeing any concrete steps by China to respond to its concerns” despite the importance it had placed on its economic relationship with China.

The two countries have not engaged at a ministerial level since their bilateral relationship began crumbling after Canberra pushed for an independent investigation into the origin of the coronavirus without consulting Beijing in April 2020.