Australia Says China Yet to Respond to Call Over Barley Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has yet to receive a call back from his Chinese counterpart after reaching out to Beijing about an anti-dumping probe into barley exports.

An official response was filed with China over the investigation, Birmingham said on the Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s Insiders program. He reiterated the government’s stance that Australia’s barley farmers operate without any trade-distorting subsidies and price their products in an entirely commercial way.

If duties, which could be set at as high as 80%, were imposed, Australia would appeal the matter to the World Trade Organization, Birmingham said.

“Government to government we have had lots of contacts, our officials continue to engage in dialogue,” Birmingham said in response to questions on whether he had been able to directly talk to his counterpart. A call seeking to talk to China’s trade minister has “not been accommodated at this time,” he said.

The probe into the barley exports to China, worth A$1.4 billion ($898 million) in 2017, is seen by many in Australia as part of Beijing’s response to the government’s call for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak that started in Wuhan.

China’s embassy in Canberra warned its citizens might be offended by Australia’s behavior and choose to travel to alternative destinations and send their children to universities in other countries — threatening Australia’s two key service exports. Meat imports from four Australian processing plants have also been suspended by China.

The two nations entered a free-trade agreement in December 2015.

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