The decision, which was mooted by the country’s Ministry of Commerce in October, was announced today (28 March) and takes effect from tomorrow. Subsequently, the 220% tariff on imports of wine into the country from Australia will be removed.
Treasury responded to the news with a statement in which it “celebrates” the decision. CEO Tim Ford described the move as “terrific news for … the Australian wine industry and … our partners and consumers in China”.
The group had seen China’s wine market drive its performance prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the tariff imposition, a consequence of alleged political disagreements between the two countries, resulting in its annual sales tumbling from AUD2.65bn in fiscal-2020 to AUD2.42bn in fiscal-2023 (to the end of June).
“This announcement signals the start of our ramp up to re-establish our Australian luxury and premium wine distribution in China,” Ford added. “It’s going to take us a little while to create the wines to fulfil that demand. We’re not going to step away from all the other markets that we’ve been successful in building over the last few years, but it just strengthens our whole business and really gives us a great platform for the next decade by unlocking the China market.
“We’re looking forward to that and we’ll get on with it.”
According to Treasury, China had been the largest export market for Australian wine pre-tariffs at around AUD1.2bn (US$783m) per year.
