Australia`s troubled relations with China are hurting one of Australia`s biggest exporters, Fairfax media reported on Friday. Treasury Wine Estates, one of the largest wine exporters, is among a number of Australian companies whose exports to China have stalled as a result of new rules imposed by Chinese customs on Australian companies and industries.
Now that Australian diplomats in China have moved to help Treasury, the deterioration in relations between Australia and China has prompted respected business leader Kraag (Graham Kraehe) to warn that Tan Bao needs to come forward to solve the problem.
"Chinese officials have introduced new and different verification and certification processes and we have been working with Chinese authorities and officials as well as with Australian authorities and officials to ensure that we are able to meet these new and additional processes. But these processes are not just applicable to Treasury Wine Estates, they have been applied to other companies in many different industries in Australia, "said Clark (Michael Clarke), owner of Treasury.
Australian Trade Minister Joe Boyle, who is on a visit to Shanghai, said he had known about Treasury in the past 24-36 hours. "the question I was asked was related to the certificate of origin. We`ll take a closer look at what`s going on and how to deal with it. " Job said.
Kraag, a former chairman of Bluescope and Brambles, said the current tensions were "really critical."
"my observation is that we need to really focus our time and focus on improving our relations with China, because while the United States is our main ally, it is not our biggest trading partner. "as time goes on-hopefully this process is slow but still going on-the United States may not be as important to us as it is now in China."
"so, I think all the tensions we see now are related to our trade and our regional perspective. We cannot rely on the United States to become a major player in Asia. " Kraag said.
Kraag has extensive business experience in China and has been visiting China for decades.
"In the long run, I think we need to form any possible relationship and arrangement with China. We should continue to make it a priority for the government," he said. "I think we need the input of the Prime Minister. China has a very strong Leader, President Xi Jinping, I don ` t know the relationship between Xi Jinping and the Prime Minister, but I think we need our Prime Minister, and obviously the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Minister to work together."
Treasury exports to China have flourished in recent years, but are now affected by new "verification requirements" that have slowed the pace of "customs clearance" for exports to China.
Clark told analysts and investors that the company does not think the problem will continue. "We have no reason to think that this will be a long-term problem, and we believe that we can go through this process." He said。
But investors still reacted strongly, causing the company`s shares to tumble 6.2 percent on Thursday.
Asked if other exporters in Australia face similar problems, he said: "from time to time, I have been asked about other things, but everything else is sporadic."
Gandler (Larry Gandler), an analyst at Credit Suisse, asked Clark what he saw as the "root cause" of the new regulatory regime, whether it was related to Australia-China relations, or whether it was "something more mundane and more specific."
In response, Clark said: "I will not speculate that I can only work through a business model from a Chinese perspective, and we are happy to do so."
