Bottles of Australian wine on the shelf of a supermarket in Beijing on August 18, 2020 Photo: VCG

China is willing to promote a "package" resolution for a trade dispute with Australia, regarding Chinese anti-dumping and countervailing measures on Australian wine and similar Australian measures against three Chinese products, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday.

Australian officials have been calling for a resolution on Chinese tariffs on wine and barley, and He Yadong, a spokesperson for MOFCOM, said that China stands ready to work with Australia to further enhance mutual trust and cooperation, while fully accommodating each other's concerns.

He said China and Australia have been discussing ways to address the trade dispute since the beginning of 2023. While Australia raised concerns about anti-dumping and countervailing measures against its barley and wine, China raised concerns about Australia's anti-dumping and countervailing measures against three Chinese products - wind towers, railway wheels and deep drawn stainless steel sinks - as well as inappropriate practices in Australia's trade remedy investigations against China.

After many rounds of discussions, both sides agreed that they will "continue to work together actively to seek a prompt resolution of our other disputes, [China's] anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures on wine from Australia and [Australia's] anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures on certain products from China," He noted.

The wine industry in China is important, and the case involves over 1,000 Chinese wine companies, He noted, while reaffirming that China is willing to work with Australia and to promote "a package solution."

China and Australia are both members of the WTO and share the responsibility of maintaining the rules-based multilateral trading system, and China is also open to continuing to resolve the issues through multilateral channels, He said.

MOFCOM on August 4 this year announced an end of anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures on barley imported from Australia starting from August 5 as the change in China's barley market has made these duties unnecessary.

MOFCOM imposed a 73.6 percent anti-dumping duty and a 6.9 percent countervailing duty on imported barley originating from Australia for a five-year period in May 2020, according to the MOFCOM statement.

Global Times