FEDERAL Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham assured Riverland winegrowers the Government will mount the “strongest possible case” against Chinese dumping allegations during a visit to the region recently.
Speaking at the Twenty Third Street Distillery in Renmark, Mr Birmingham denied the claims as the Chinese Government begins a 12-month inquiry into Australian wine exports.
“I understand that issues like the Chinese investigation into dumping allegations will cause concern amongst local winemakers,” he said.
“We are going to work as hard as we can together with the wine industry to mount the strongest possible case in defence of our wine industry which isn’t subsidised and doesn’t dump its products on world markets, but operates purely as a world-class high-quality producer who prices its product in China the second-highest of any country in the world.”
Mr Birmingham said Australian industries had shown “enormous resilience” with “significant volumes of product” still being exported to China and other markets.
“What we’re doing is equally providing more choice and more opportunities for farmers, exporters and businesses to look at different markets that they can sell their product into,” he said.
“We are doing that through our increasing network of trade agreements right around the world and also supporting them with export activities and promotion across a range of growing markets like India and others.”
Mr Birmingham visited various agriculture and tourism operators around the Riverland during his tour last Thursday and Friday.
He said there was a “big opportunity” to grow the local tourism product over the next few years.
“There’s a real buoyancy in regional tourism right now as a result of the fact that people from cities like Adelaide are eager to get out and take breaks,” Mr Birmingham said.
“Obviously things like border restrictions are curtailing people’s ability to go all that much further, but I’m very optimistic that across regional SA, whether it’s here in the Riverland or across to the west coast or many other hotspots of regional tourism, they are actually seeing people get out and about.
“Hopefully people from Adelaide are discovering things they’ve never thought about discovering before and will be stronger ambassadors for the tourism product afterwards.
“I’m certainly getting good positive feedback from many tourism operators that they are seeing business pick up and that they are confident that those South Australian visits are going to continue through the end of this year.”