Australian beef will soon be hit by 55% tariff in China, ministry says

Australian beef will soon be subject to an additional 55 per cent import duty in China, with shipments of the meat about to surpass an annual quota set by Beijing, China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed on Tuesday.Imports of Australian beef have already reached 90 per cent of this year’s quota, meaning that a tariff adjustment will soon be triggered, the ministry announced via an alert.Until recently, most imports of Australian beef were subject to low or even zero tariffs in China under a bilateral free-trade agreement. But that changed in January, when Beijing introduced a three-year tariff-scheme" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="138897" data-entity-type="topic">beef tariff scheme to protect China’s domestic farmers.