The federal government hopes the virtual meeting will quickly be followed by an invitation to Farrell to travel to China to meet with Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao for the first in-person talks of their kind since December 2019.
Australia wines at a Shanghai expo in November 2020. China slapped tariffs or restrictions on $20 billion worth of Australian exports in 2020.Farrell’s virtual meeting was agreed to during a 45-minute exchange between Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres and China’s Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that a video meeting between the two trade ministers would take place "in the near future". China had accounted for almost 40 per cent of Australian wine exports, making it the nation’s biggest overseas market.with the World Trade Organisation, which is currently investigating the issue.