Australia to reduce US beef import restrictions denounced by Trump as a ban

All rights reserved)CANBERRA – China has stepped up trade restrictions against Australia, suspending imports of some timber and barley, the agriculture minister said Tuesday, amid tension over the coronavirus, Hong Kong and the South China Sea. Beijing has blocked or limited imports of Australian coal, beef and other goods and announced an investigation into whether wine was being sold at improperly low prices. That follows demands by Beijing for the Australian government to drop its support for an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic that began in central China in December. The latest controls apply to timber from Queensland and barley from an additional Australian producer. “In the meantime, mutual respect is the foundation and guarantee of practical cooperation between countries,” said the spokesman, Wang Wenbin.

China blocked imports from an Australian beef producer on Friday after reporting a banned drug was found in its meat, and Australian officials said they were working to resolve the problem. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)BEIJING China blocked imports from an Australian beef producer on Friday after reporting a banned drug was found in its meat, and Australian officials said they were working to resolve the problem. Imports of beef from John Dee Warwick Pty. China earlier blocked imports of beef from Australia's largest producers in what political analysts suggested was a dispute over trade rules. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. cited Littleproud as saying in an interview that there was nothing malicious about the ban.