Government downplays China wine woes

The Australian government continues to downplay issues Australian wine companies are having with exports to China.

As representatives from Treasury Wine Estates, Pernod Ricard, Casella Family Brands and McWilliams held crisis talks with Assistant Agriculture Minister Anne Ruston yesterday, Minister for Trade Steven Ciobo told The National Press Club that the problems were merely an "irritant".

“I think it is important that we put some context around your phrasing of ‘go-slow’,” he said.

“If you look at the results of Australian exports to China, if you look at the investment from Australia into China over the past three years, the growth has been phenomenal.

“If you look at wine, for example, what started out as around an $11m export industry, has grown to more than $1bn worth of exports, you see this is the product of the government’s commitment to opening up those opportunities through the China-Australia free-trade-agreement.

“… So what you refer to is absolutely a trade irritant that is there, but when you put it in the context of where trade is going, when you look at the growth we’ve had in beef and wine exports, I think it is important that we don’t mischaracterise what is happening.”

The Australian Financial Review says producers are frustrated that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull won't meet with them and are demanding he visit China as quickly as possible to repair relations with Australia's biggest export market for wine. 

Malcolm Turnbull selfie with Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.

TWE was the first to reveal that wine companies were having issues. CEO Michael Clarke noted in a conference call last month that there appeared to be a "go slow" or bottleneck at Chinese ports, caused by Chinese customs officials requiring changes to the supply of documents and the way these export papers were filled in. 

Wine industry insiders believe the extra scrutiny is due to the current tensions between the Australian and Chinese governments. One winemaker told the AFR that product from the US, Canada and New Zealand was entering China after 10 days but Australian wine was being delayed by two months.

Opposition calls for action

Labor has joined Australian exporters in calling for the Prime Minister to travel to China to try and mend relations between the two countries.

Shadow Trade Minister Jason Clare said it was now taking up to two months for Australian products to leave China’s docks.

“And that is new, it didn’t used to be like that, Australian wine used to go through in two weeks,” he told Sky News.

“This all started in April and what wine companies are telling me, what beef companies are telling me, they are experiencing the same problem as well, is that this is political.

“It is all to do with some of the clumsy and stupid things, the prime minister in particular, but others have said, over the past few months.

“… The way to fix this issue, is for Malcolm Turnbull to pick up the phone or get on a plane, and sort this issue out. Until he does that … this won’t be properly resolved.”