China agrees to review tariffs on Australian wine ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s trip to Beijing

China has agreed to conduct an “expedited review” of tariffs on Australian wine ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visiting Beijing in early November — further stabilising the relations between the two nations. Mr Albanese will visit China from November 4 to 7 to meet with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang, which is the first trip made by an Australian Prime Minister since 2016. He will also attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, while marking the 50th anniversary of the first visit to Beijing by former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1973. Mr Albanese said the two nations had agreed to suspend their World Trade Organisation dispute while China undertakes an “expedited review“ of duties, which is expected to take five months. If the sanctions are not removed at the end of the review, Australia will resume the dispute. “We’re very confident that this will result in Australian wine once again being able to go to China free of the tariffs imposed on it. This is a decision that will be worth more than a billion dollars to Australia’s exports,” Mr Albanese said. “This is a very significant decision because unlike some of the other products, the wine industry has indicated they were having difficulty finding other markets to fill the gap.” China put tariffs and restrictions on $20 billion worth of Australian exports a year after the Morrison Government called for an international inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. This included tariffs on Australian wine, barley, coal, cotton, timber, lobster and red meat. Australian wine exports to China were valued at more than $1 billion before the tariffs were put in place in 2020 but that figure has plunged to $12 million. The Prime Minister said his visit to China would be an important step towards ensuring a stable and productive relationship with Australia’s biggest trading partner, amounting to almost a third of the nation’s trade. “I look forward to further engaging with President Xi and Premier Li in Australia’s national interest,” he said. “I welcome the progress we have made to return Australian products, including Australian wine, to the Chinese market. Strong trade benefits to both countries.” Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham welcomed China’s decision to suspend the wine tariffs but argued the sanctions “should never have been put in place”. “It was an attempted economic coercion by China... the tariffs were never justified,” Senator Birmingham told ABC’s Insiders on Sunday. Diplomatic tensions started to thaw when Mr Albanese met with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last year and Foreign Minister Penny Wong visited Beijing a month later. Trade Minister Don Farrell became the first Australian Trade Minister to visit China in nearly four years in May to progress discussions on removing tariffs on the nation’s goods. The wine tariffs breakthrough comes after China earlier this month freed Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who had been detained in Beijing for three years after being accused of national security-related offences.