... suspends imports of Australian beef products
SYDNEY: China has suspended beef imports from four of Australia’s largest meat processors, as the trade of several key agricultural commodities suffers in the wake of souring ties stemming from a dispute over the Covid-19 pandemic.
The suspension comes after Australia last month called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the novel coronavirus and just days after China proposed introducing an 80% tariff on Australian barley shipments.
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham described the import suspension as “disappointing”, but denied it was retribution by China over Australia’s desire for a coronavirus inquiry.
China has rejected the need for an independent inquiry, and Beijing’s ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, in late April said Chinese consumers could shun Australian goods in response to Canberra’s support for such an investigation.
Birmingham said Kilcoy Pastoral Company, JBS’s Beef City and Dinmore plants, and the Northern Cooperative Meat Company have been banned from exporting beef to China due to issues with labelling and health certificates.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters that China’s customs agency “continuously” found instances of the Australian companies having violated inspection and quarantine requirements and suspended the imports to “ensure the safety and health of
Chinese consumers”.
“(China’s customs) notified the relevant Australian departments and required them to investigate completely the reason for the problem and to fix it,” he said during a daily briefing in Beijing.
Zhao added that the suspension was unrelated to the bilateral dispute over Covid-19.
Labelling issues were also cited by Beijing when the same companies and two others lost their licences to ship beef to China in 2017 for several months.
“Thousands of jobs relate to these meat processing facilities. Many more farmers rely upon them in terms of selling cattle into those facilities,” Birmingham told reporters in Canberra.
Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said the companies made up approximately 20% of Australian beef exports to China.
Australian meat exporters were aware of Chinese labelling requirements, he said. “Sometimes their tolerance levels go up and down. This time we have a situation where the tolerance is quite low for this issue”.
Australia was China’s third-largest beef supplier in 2019, after Brazil and Argentina. China’s beef imports surged in the first quarter of 2020, despite a sharp slowdown in demand as consumers stay away from restaurants following the coronavirus outbreak.