China’s Ministry of Commerce has launched a fresh trade sanction on the Australian wine industry, the second trade strike in as many weeks.

After accusing the wine industry of dumping cheap plonk into the local market, China now says it will now launch a counter-vailing investigation which will examine the range of subsidies offered to Australian wine producers.

Veteran trade and diplomatic expert Professor Gordon Flake, also the CEO of Perth USAsia Centre, says this is an example of China’s “economic statecraft,”

“It’s part of a broader series of Chinese responses around the world where Australia isn’t unique, this is really economic statecraft, it is China using economic levers to express their displeasure on political developments,” Professor Flake told Brooke Corte.

“At this point you’re hard pressed to find a country in the world that isn’t having some level of dispute with China,”

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