China has already imposed trade sanctions on Australian barley and beef. Jeffrey Wilson from the Perth USAsia Centre said a clear pattern of economic coercion was now emerging, referring to the latest measure from China against Australian exports, ABC News reports. "China's probe against Australian wine follows the same logic as recent moves against barley — the use of seemingly 'technical' trade measures to disguise what is fundamentally a political sanction," he said. "The Chinese ambassador to Australia publicly threatened such sanctions on wine in April, making it an extreme stretch of credulity to believe this is a routine trade policy investigation." Wilson also warned that the wine industry would be badly hurt if the Chinese Ministry of Commerce concluded it had been dumping, and imposed trade sanctions.

Source: The Standard August 18, 2020 06:45 UTC