Hon Kevin Hogan MP, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism
Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs
Friday, 4 August 2023
Joint Statement on the removal of tariffs on Australian barley
Today’s announcement that China will remove what we have always perceived as illegal and punitive tariffs on Australian barley is welcome.
For tariffs that we believe should never have been imposed in the first place, this was the only acceptable outcome.
This result is why we supported the Government’s suspension of the WTO process for barley.
The Government did commit that China’s review process for barley was a pathway for wine. We therefore look forward to similar movement on the removal of what we perceive as the same punitive tariffs.
As we know there is more work to do for other commodities such as rock lobster and beef.
We should expect nothing less than China to adhere to the terms it entered into under the China-Australia free trade agreement.
We would hope that the Government will also continue to be applying every possible lever it can for the release of unfairly detained Australians Ms Cheng Lei and Dr Yang Jun.
The lack of transparency in relation to those detained Australians is completely unacceptable and we should continue to seize every opportunity to prosecute their cases for them to return home to their families.
Ends
