China has suspended beef imports from another Australian meat supplier, as the Federal Government warns of a “long road” ahead. 

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud addressed the ongoing tensions with Scott Emerson.

“We vehemently believe these are unfair decisions, they are unfounded,” he said.

“In fact there is mounting evidence now that the decisions made by China has nothing to do with technical trade matters.

“We need to brace ourselves for a long road in which to rectify these matter through the umpire.”

It comes after China banned imports from a Queensland based supplier overnight.

“Just to put the beef into perspective, it’s important to understand under the China-Australia free trade agreement, we hit that beef quota in July this year,” he said.

“We normally hit that quota in November.. so there is still significant demand going into China.

“At a business to business level, the Chinese consumer is voting with their forks and they are buying Australian red meat like it’s going out of fashion.”

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Images: Getty