Australia and China held bilateral talks between senior officials in Canberra on 12 April, covering a range of international topics, including trade, consular, human rights and strategic competition. These were led by the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ms Jan Adams AO PSM, who reiterated that it was in the shared interests of Australia and China to continue on the path of stabilising the bilateral relationship.
Secretary Adams met with the Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Mr Ma Zhaoxu, who is the most senior official from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was formerly Ambassador to Australia (2013-2016).
The talks followed the agreement between Foreign Ministers at the Foreign and Strategic Dialogue in December 2022 to maintain high-level contact and commence or re-start dialogue in a range of areas. Australia and China last held bilateral talks at the Secretary-level in Beijing in February 2019.
Australia Drops WTO Appeal
On Tuesday (11 April) the Australia’s Acting Prime Minister Penny Wong announced that the federal government has asked the World Trade Organization to suspend its appeal on Beijing’s decision to apply tariffs to Australian barley.
China accused Australian farmers of dumping barley and subsidising grain growers. Dumping is the suggestion that our farmers were selling barley for cheaper than it cost to produce.
The WTO acts like an independent umpire and had been due to hand down a ruling any day now – widely anticipated to be in Australia’s favour. But now, Australia has effectively put the umpire’s decision on hold.
The federal government says China has promised to conduct an expedited review of the tariffs over the next three months. Though the review could take until August, it would still be a faster process than a formal WTO resolution. If the review is unsuccessful, Australia says it will resume the WTO appeal.
Other Aussie Exporters Hope for a Breakthrough
Australia’s wine industry is watching closely.
Its appeal to the WTO – almost a carbon copy of the barley dispute – continues with winemakers desperate to resume trade with China as soon as possible.
Many of our exporters are likewise cautiously optimistic that the agreement on barley will create a pathway to removing all of the huge tariffs imposed by China in 2020.
Lobster and timber exporters have also been locked out of China since 2020 due to China’s quarantine requirements.
For several Australian abattoirs, the block on trade with China is due to labelling, contamination, and COVID-19-related concerns.
Importantly, Australia recently resumed coal exports to China and many other farm exports remain unaffected by Beijing’s sanctions.
China remains one of the most valuable markets for red meat, dairy, and wheat. Overall, its tariffs and bans resulted in a $20billion hit to Australia’s export economy.
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