By Alasdair Pal
SYDNEY, April 11 (Reuters) – Australia and China have reached an agreement to resolve their dispute over barley imports, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday, in the latest sign of improving ties between both trading partners.
China’s 80.5% tariffs on Australian barley all but wiped out imports of the grain by the world’s biggest beer market, prompting Australia’s formal complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2020.
Until then they had ranged from A$1.5 to A$2 billion a year (US$1.0 to $1.335 billion).
Wong said Australia will suspend the WTO case while China speeds up its review of its grain tariffs.
“China has agreed to conduct an expedited review of the tariffs on Australian barley over a period of three months, which can be extended to a quarter if necessary,” Wong told a news conference.
“In exchange, we have agreed to temporarily suspend the dispute at the WTO during the agreed review period.”
The Australian government expects a similar outcome in a second dispute over wine tariffs, it added.
(1 US dollar = 1.4990 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing in Spanish by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)
