Ambassador Xiao Qian
China will resume the importation of Australian timber, bringing to an end a ban of nearly three years. Source: Timberbiz
“The Chinese customs has formally notified the Australian minister of agriculture that starting from today China will resume import of Australian timbers,” Ambassador Xiao Qian said in Canberra on Thursday.
Australia’s $600 million annual timber trade with China was suspended in 2020 with Beijing citing quarantine risks.
China voiced phytosanitary concerns and the Commonwealth worked on a range of measures including increased inspections of log consignments, monitoring during fumigation, re-inspections after fumigation and increased audits for all log exporters.
“That is a conclusion [come to] after a serious study based on the materials provided by the Australian side,” Mr Xiao said.
He said that was related the quarantine of timbers, and they “have satisfied the conditions of the Chinese Customs”.
“There are also other issues on the table,” Mr Xiao said.
“The momentum is positive. Both sides agreed to sit down and talk about their differences.”
China’s move has been welcomed by Australia’s timber industry with Australian Forest Products Association CEO Joel Fitzgibbon welcoming the decision.
“China has been and will continue to be an important market for Australian timber and wood fibre export products,” he said.
“When the ban came into effect more than two years ago it caused a great deal of upheaval and uncertainty for many timber exporters and the broader forest sector, and this resolution is welcomed.
“AFPA and log exporters have worked closely with the Albanese Government, especially Trade Minister Don Farrell, and the former Coalition Government on this issue, and we thank them for their efforts helping to resolve the quarantine issues that China faced importing logs from Australia.”
Mr Fitzgibbon said that the AFPA would work closely with its members, other stakeholders, and the Commonwealth to ensure a smooth transition back to normal trade.
The Chair of the Tasmanian Forest Products Association, Bryan Hayes, told the ABC the ambassador’s announcement sounded like a positive development “at first blush”.
“I guess we’ll wait to see the detail because, you know, it’s one thing to hear a political announcement, it’s another to see what actually transpires on the ground in a commercial sense,” Mr Hayes said.
Mr Hayes was the chief executive of log exporter Forico at the time of the trade ban and he said 100 people lost their jobs.
“I would hope that those jobs come back, and the people are able to resume, but people are a little bit gun shy — there’s a few battle scars from that sudden announcement [in 2020] and there was a huge disruption to businesses and people’s lives,” he told the ABC.
Mr Hayes added it would be expensive for some companies to re-engage with China and take a risk to set up the logistics and supply chains again.
“I know a number of them have looked for and found alternative markets and even onshore processing, because, ideally, we’d like to be doing more onshore processing and manufacturing here in Australia rather than exporting raw materials across to value add somewhere else,” he said.
The President of Forestry Australia, Dr Michelle Freeman congratulated the Federal Government for its hard work in re-opening the market for Australian producers to export to China.
“While Forestry Australia welcomes the opening of the Chinese market, we also must acknowledge our moral imperative to invest in strategies to increase local timber supply into our own domestic markets,” Dr Freeman said.
“Australia is the sixth most forested country in the world but is a net importer of timber products. The current approach is not working if we want to continue to provide local timber products to support affordable housing and flow-on benefits to meet society’s needs”,” she said.
“We are in effect, exporting our forest management challenges to other nations, when we have high environmental standards and highly skilled professionals and scientists to appropriately manage our resources locally.
“Given this, we look forward to working with Government to support well managed sustainable forest harvesting from both Australian plantations and native forests and reduce our dependence on the import of timber products,” Dr Freeman said.
