Removal of Chinese tariffs sees imports of Australian wine surge

The value of China’s imports of Australian bottled wine last month was 2,952 times more than in September last year, before the removal of punitive tariffs, with volume totalling 3.51 million litres, according to the latest customs data.

In the first nine months of this year, China imported bottled wine from Australia valued at US$335.5 million – 613 times more than in the same period last year, and 57 per cent of the amount in the first three quarters of 2019.

That made Australia, with a 32.32 per cent share of the imported wine market, the second-largest wine supplier to China after France, which had a 1.65 percentage point lead.

The surge this year followed Beijing’s removal of punitive tariffs on Australian wine in March.