Australian Grape and Wine Inc (AGW) has welcomed the Australian Government’s latest Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which has been signed with Hong Kong.
While the FTA is good news for Australian food and beverage exporters the inclusion of a specific Wine Annex, which helps to streamline technical requirements such as wine labelling and certification, is a huge benefit for wine businesses.
Tony Battaglene, CEO of Australian Grape & Wine, said: “Australian wine businesses appreciate the Australian Government’s commitment to the benefits of free trade, led by the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Simon Birmingham.
“It is great to see yet another Australian Free Trade Agreement incorporating technical wine related provisions. These provisions go a long way towards providing greater certainty of market access and reducing the cost of doing business.”
AGW said that with technical barriers proving to be one of the biggest hurdles to profitable trade the association was encouraging the Australian Government to include technical annexes specific to wine in Australia’s Free Trade Agreements.
“[AGW] urges all parties to ensure the agreement passes through the Joint Standing Committee on Trade process as quickly as possible, in order for our winemakers and winegrape growers to capture the new opportunities in Hong Kong,” Battaglene added.
Australian wine businesses exported more than $100m worth of wine to Hong Kong in 2018 and maintained a strong market share at high price points, particularly for red wines.