Sky News host Chris Smith says there are “spiralling trade tensions” between Australia and China as the communist nation moves to suspend the importation of beef from a number of Australian suppliers.
“These tactics are bullish, they’re crippling, they’re childish in the way they don’t communicate,” Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith spoke with the Australian Meat Industry Council CEO Patrick Hutchinson about the blows being dealt to the agricultural industries.
“Obviously it’s never ideal for these sorts of things to occur to us,” Mr Hutchinson said.
“The problem that we have, normally what would occur is we would have a dialogue with our Chinese counterparts and our importers.
“But unfortunately, we don’t have a dialogue at the moment,” he said.
“So, it’s making it all the more difficult”.