CANBERRA: Australia’s commerce and agriculture ministers stated on Tuesday (Dec 12) that China had lifted restrictions on imports of meat from three massive abattoirs in Australia, within the newest signal of enhancing relations between the 2 nations.
China blocked imports of Australian commodities together with coal, timber and barley after Australia referred to as for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 in 2020.
Most of those restrictions have been eliminated since a change of presidency in Canberra final yr.
China is the most important abroad purchaser of Australian lamb and mutton and the fourth-biggest purchaser of its beef.
Whereas commerce in different commodities collapsed attributable to tariffs or different commerce limitations, many Australian abattoirs might nonetheless ship to China and export volumes had been little modified lately.
The commerce and agriculture ministers stated China’s customs company had introduced the lifting of restrictions in a single day.
Reuters couldn’t instantly attain Chinese language Customs for remark. An inventory of meat exporters authorised to export to China on the Customs web site nonetheless confirmed the three Australian corporations as suspended.
Restrictions had been imposed on the three abattoirs in 2020 and 2022 after instances of COVID-19 had been reported amongst their employees.
Eight different Australian meat producers stay suspended. These have been banned attributable to what China says are points over labelling or contamination.
