Australians rally for boycott of wines from 41 Chinese-owned vineyards as trade dispute continues

蘋果日報 2020/12/11 05:37


A list of 41 Chinese-owned Australian vineyards has sparked calls for a boycott from Australians, amid continuing tensions between the two countries with the ongoing trade dispute.
China slugged tariffs on Australian wine of up to 212% last week, which Beijing described as temporary anti-dumping measures. A list compiled by the Facebook page “Vino e Amigos,” which was widely cited by Australian media, showed that up to 41 vineyards in Australia were owned by Chinese companies.
The Chinese-owned vineyards were mainly in Victoria and South Australia, followed by those in Tasmania, West Australia and New South Wales. The list did not show the ratio of shares that Chinese companies owned at those vineyards.
Some netizens were surprised by the list. “No wonder some say the Australian government sold the country to China,” one said.
“So Australian winemakers have been teaching the Chinese? Were they playing us?” a second netizen asked.
Others were concerned that Chinese-Australians and workers at the vineyards may be affected by the boycott.
The owner of Hong Kong wine seller Drinker House, identified as Cheng, said some customers would bring the list when shopping in order to avoid buying wines from Chinese-owned Australian vineyards.
Staff at the shop would also avoid recommending such wines, and popular Australian wines Mollydooker and Torbreck were not Chinese-owned, Cheng said.
Cheng has stopped importing wines from Chinese-owned Australian vineyards after the list was circulated, but some stock remained.
Exports of Australian wood, beef, mutton, lobsters and wheat to China were also affected due to worsening ties. Chinese customs suspended export applications from six Australian beef companies, accusing four of violating importation requirements, with samples from another company apparently testing positive for the banned drug chloramphenicol.
Beef exports from Australia to China has dropped by a third, according to industry insiders. The ban has caused loss of hundreds of millions in U.S. dollars as well as unemployment, as meat processing plants hoped to resume trade as soon as possible, Australian media reported. In the past six months, 32 of the 66 plants across the world banned from exporting to China have already resumed exports, but none were from Australia, according to industry analysts.
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