Although it looked like the Australian wine industry was catching a break a couple of years ago when China removed steep tariffs on imports of Australian wine, lately it’s been hit by a CCP-encouraged slump in demand.
In March 2024, China dropped the duties on Australian wine to reward Australia’s efforts to be nice.
The Guardian reported then that in 2020, China “had imposed tariffs of above 200% on Australian wine products, at the height of the diplomatic dispute between the two countries.”
China had done so before the Albanese government took power in 2022. Then, under a 2023 “ ‘off-ramp’ deal, Australia suspended its complaint against China at the World Trade Organization in return for China agreeing to fast-track a review of the tariffs by the end of March.”
When China accordingly dropped the tariffs, the Australian government effused about the repeal and its own wondrous diplomacy in a March 28, 2024 press release.
“This outcome affirms the calm and consistent approach taken by the Albanese Labor Government and follows the success of the similar approach taken to remove duties on Australian barley…. The Australian Government’s approach is to cooperate with China where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest…. The Government will continue to support [the ability of] Australian businesses to sell their world-class products on the global stage.”
Pragmatism, appeasement, and firm moral clarity are perfectly consistent with each other, the statement implies. Can Australian wine now flow into the People’s Republic of China? Okay then. Mission accomplished. The immediate deal is what matters. After all, the past is gone and the future will never be.
No whine
A year later, Chinese warships were circling Australia and making it feel “Near-Naked.”
“For nearly a month, Australian forces were on alert as a flotilla of Chinese navy ships made an unannounced voyage around the continent. The ships sailed in and out of Australia’s exclusive economic zone. They fired live shots near commercial airspace, forcing dozens of civilian flights to reroute. They sailed past Perth in Western Australia, days after a visiting U.S. nuclear submarine docked at a nearby naval base.”
A disagree-where-we-must moment?
“Australian officials repeatedly assured the public that the Chinese ships’ presence and actions were perfectly legitimate under international law,” suggesting (if the claim is true) the importance of updating international law. But “international law” is not the same thing as “motive,” like the motive of finding out how Australian officials would react to such line-crossing intimidation. And the CCP found out. This is the best of all possible worlds, the Australian officials advised everybody.
But let’s move on.
In May 2025, Distillery Trail reported that “China has barred alcohol, luxury dishes, and cigarettes from official meals, part of a sweeping crackdown on extravagance in public life. Government cars must forgo flashy upgrades, and meeting rooms must be free of ornamental plants and fancy backdrops.”
In January 2026, Reuters reported that “Australian wine exports shrank in 2025 as drinkers sober up” and that imports to China were hit especially hard.
“The value of Australian exports to China, its most lucrative market, fell the most sharply, dropping 17% last year to A$755 million ($530 million). Australian winemakers logged strong sales to China in 2024 when Beijing removed tariffs that had blocked trade, but a rapid shrinking of Chinese wine demand is now taking its toll.” According to Peter Bailey, who evaluates markets for Wine Australia, “The Chinese wine market is one third of the size it was five years ago.”
On March 23, 2026, the Wall Street Journal reported that in December of last year, “Treasury Wine Estates, an Australian wine company that is one of the world’s largest, said it had a problem on its hands: excess wine valued at about $150 million sitting in distributor warehouses in China…. A tough economy and leader Xi Jinping’s crackdown on what Beijing deems unbecoming behavior by government officials have caused the bottom to fall out of what was once among the most lucrative wine markets in the world.”
Perhaps none of these things is related to the others. Perhaps they are all separate atoms whirling in a void.
