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Greg Jennett: All right, let’s move into your trade portfolio. Of course, the China wine tariffs are gone. You’ve expressed great confidence that the remaining $700 million worth of blockages on lobster and some beef abattoirs will be removed by year’s end. But what specific timelines are you holding Chinese officials to on this? Certainly, you did on wine and you did on barley. What are you applying in these cases?
Minister for Trade: Well, as I’ve spoken about many times Greg, our objective over the last 18 months was to stabilise our relationship with China. I’ve now met with my Chinese counterpart on six occasions, and on each occasion I’ve raised with him the lifting of these trade impediments. As we saw over the weekend, we got the good news about wine. That’s very important for Australian wine industry, but particularly the South Australian wine industry, because, of course, South Australia was more seriously affected by the impediments than anyone else.
I continue to advocate for the removal of these bans on lobster and the few remaining abattoirs. I’m confident that the good working relationship that we’ve now established with my counterpart will result in the lifting of these impediments very soon.
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Source: Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Speaker: Senator the Hon. Don Farrell, Minister for Trade
Format: Interview
China Policy Research 