Australia’s red meat industry could be the latest victims in a fast-evolving trade war with China, with a number of Australian abattoirs suspended from the trade.

China has imposed an import ban on four Australian abattoirs in an apparent escalation of Beijing’s trade war tactics.
The blacklisting of the red meat abattoirs three in Queensland and one in NSW comes just days after China flagged plans to introduce an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley, bringing the trade to its knees.
There are fears the barriers introduced by Australia’s largest trading partner are in retaliation to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s demand for an independent investigation into the COVID-19 outbreak.
Three Queensland meatworks Kilcoy Pastoral Company, the JBS owned Beef City, near Toowoomba; Dinmore, near Brisbane, and the New South Wales’ Northern Cooperative Meat Company at Casino have been suspended by China.
One analyst has told the ABC the four meatworks represent 35 per cent of beef exports to China, a trade that had been on track to reach $3.5 billion this year.
Minister: Suspensions based on technical issue
A statement from the Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said the Government was notified yesterday about the suspensions imposed by Chinese authoritiesrelating to labelling and health certificate requirements.
“We are concerned that the suspensions appear to be based on highly technical issues, which in some cases date back more than a year,” the statement said.
“I’ve been speaking with industry leaders, colleagues and departments overnight to formulate a comprehensive response.”
“We will work with industry and authorities in both Australia and China to seek to find a solution that allows these businesses to resume their normal operations as soon as possible.”
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The Australian Meat Industry Council said China had strict requirements which the Australian industry took “exceptionally seriously”.
“While not desirable, we have dealt with issues of this nature before and are working closely with the Commonwealth,” it said.
“This is a trade and market access issue that is being led by the Commonwealth.”
Questions raised over diplomatic games
Last month, China’s ambassador to Australia threatened a consumer backlash against Australian exports as it pursued an investigation into the handling of COVID-19.
Today, Australian academic and expert on Chinese trade, Southern Queensland University’s Ben Lyons said China was playing “diplomatic games” with Australia.
“I always find it a little bit ironic that when they ban meat plants, there’s one of them that’s Chinese-invested, in the Kilcoy abattoir, so it’s not as orchestrated as we think sometimes,” Dr Lyons said.
But Dr Lyons said Australia did have some leverage in negotiating its way out of the stoush.
“China hasn’t got 9 per cent of the world’s arable land anymore.
“They’ve also got a big issue in terms of labour, they’ve got issues around productivity.
“I think there’s a lot that we have [that China needs] and I think it is a case of a few different forces growing, it is not something that the barley producers have done wrong or beef producers,” he said.
In 2017, China banned imports from six Australian meatworks, including the four processors caught up in the latest ban, along with Australian Country Choice and Thomas Foods.
That ban related to Chinese concern about labelling non-compliance and took months of high level diplomacy to resolve, stalling beef production in the process.
The processors have been contacted for comment.