China has fully lifted trade suspensions targeting Australian red meat, Canberra said Tuesday, dismantling one of the final barriers in a four-year trade row that hammered US$13 billion of exports.
Starting in 2020, a slew of Australia’s most lucrative export commodities were effectively banned from China.
But as relations have improved in the past two years, Beijing has dropped tariffs on Australian barley and wine, halted an import ban on timber and resumed shipments of coal.
Barriers targeting red meat and lobster were the last to remain.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday that China had paved the way for “full resumption of red meat exports”.
Full lobster trade is expected to resume by the end of the year, the Australian government announced in October.
“We are close to the point where China’s trade impediments — which impacted Aus$20 billion (US$13 billion) worth of Australian exports — have all been removed,” trade minister Don Farrell said on Tuesday.
