China proposes tariffs on Australian Barley

The Australian barley industry understands the People’s Republic of China, Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) are potentially proposing to place tariffs on barley imported from Australia as a result of their ongoing anti-dumping and countervailing duties investigations.

The yet to be finalised tariffs may include a dumping margin of up to 73.6% and a subsidy margin of up to 6.9% for barley imported from Australia.

Australian barley exporters and the Australian Government have been provided with 10 days to respond. It is understood MOFCOM may provide their final determination on, or before 19 May 2020.

The organisations making this statement and Australian barley exporters will continue to co-operate with the Chinese Government and work closely with the Australian Government.

Grain Producers Australian chairman Andrew Wiedemann described the tariffs as "absolutely a massive kick in the guts" to Australia and one he believed would resonate "right through the community right down to the consumer to every part of Australian society".

"Barely has been traded into China recently, even though we've had the dumping allegation on the record.

"In the last six months we know there's been shipments and there's been indications of further business required, so this decision came unexpectedly given we felt we had answered all of the questions as an industry back to China," Mr Weidemann said.

"We also know that China really does want our barley, they've been a substantial buyer of our barley for a long time, so this also will cause damage to their own industry."

A copy of the statement is available here.

https://www.grainproducers.com.au/