Australian winemakers’ years-long freezeout from the lucrative Chinese market will soon be over if Beijing follows through on a recommendation from a key Chinese ministry.
It’s been more than 3.5 years since the $1.2 billion export trade collapsed when China imposed staggering wine import taxes among a range of trade penalties launched in part as a reaction to Australia’s call for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19.
But relations thawed with the arrival of the Albanese government and tariffs on coal, beef barley and cotton dropped one by one.
Treasury Wine Estates, the ASX-listed company behind Penfolds and other big brands, yesterday said the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) had advised it of an “interim draft determination” proposing the removal of the tariff.
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