Australia's Trade With China Recovers
According to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on May 4, Australia's exports to China soared to a nearly two-year high in March, reaching 19 billion Australian dollars (approximately RMB 87.598 billion), an increase of 31% over the same period last year, but lower than The monthly historical peak of A$21.76 billion in June 2021. Largely due to the substantial growth in exports to China, Australia's current trade surplus reached 15.3 billion Australian dollars, the second highest level in history. Among them, Australia's iron ore lumps and iron ore exports to China increased by 24.3% and 17.7% respectively from the previous month; thermal coal shipments to China surged by 125% from February, offsetting the decline in the country's coal exports to Japan. Influence.
Statistics show that China is Australia's largest trading partner, and its trade volume with China is more than twice that of other countries that follow it.
The foreign trade surplus has returned to a high level, helping the Australian economy to achieve a fiscal budget surplus for the first time in 15 years. Australian Treasury Minister Jim Chalmers said on the 7th that the reasons behind this (expected fiscal surplus) are related to the surge in Australian exports brought about by the faster than expected pace of China's economic recovery in the past six months and the continued strong development of the labor market. related.
The rapid recovery and growth of bilateral trade between Australia and China is closely related to the fact that the Albanese government of the Australian Labor Party came to power a year ago. The Albanese government, which has a more moderate and pragmatic attitude towards China than before, has worked hard to repair Australia-China relations for a year. It also specially appointed Chinese Foreign Minister Huang Yingxian to strengthen in-depth contacts with China. Australia's initiative to repair the relationship between the two countries has directly revitalized the "backwater" in the economic and trade field for several years, and Australia-China economic and trade relations have been able to gradually get out of the tense situation in the past seven years. It is also reported that Australian Trade Minister Farrell revealed that he will visit China in the next few weeks and plans to promote more diversification of Australia-China trade relations.
Recently, Australia's iron ore and coal exports to China have both experienced recovery growth, and the resumption of exports to China is related to another bulk commodity - barley. Relevant parties on both sides are also actively negotiating. According to Article 49 of the "Anti-dumping Regulations of the People's Republic of China" and Article 48 of the "Countervailing Regulations of the People's Republic of China", the Ministry of Commerce of China has decided to impose sanctions on imported barley originating in Australia from April 15, 2023. Applied anti-dumping and countervailing measures are reviewed. Also in April, Australia officially announced the suspension of its appeal to the WTO against China’s imposition of “double reverse” tariffs on Australian barley; China stated that it had agreed to an accelerated review of barley tariffs in the next three to four months. For Australia, a negotiated settlement between the two parties is a faster way to get barley back into the Chinese market, rather than resorting to time-consuming WTO litigation. The approach also provides a model for Australia's bid to get China to remove tariffs on Australian wine.
From China's point of view, China is also willing to join hands with Australia to strengthen economic and trade exchanges under the normal bilateral framework. China hopes and has been actively promoting the goal of achieving mutual benefit and win-win results in a healthy and stable multilateral trading system. In 2022, China's import and export scale will reach 6.3 trillion US dollars, which is nearly 900 billion US dollars higher than that of the United States.
China and Australia are important economic and trade partners to each other. The economic structures of the two countries are highly complementary. of peace and development.
A few days ago, former Australian ambassador to China Geoffrey Raby said frankly that in the past seven years, Australia-China relations have gone through a difficult period. Now, both Australia and China hope to re-examine the relationship between the two countries. The relationship between the two countries is currently developing in the direction of normalization, and the prospects are very optimistic. But as the geopolitical situation has changed profoundly over the past few years, both countries need to learn a "new diplomacy" to navigate their relationship while avoiding confrontation. China is not Australia's strategic enemy, and Australia has no unresolved historical issues with China. A good Australia-China relationship will be good for Australia's prosperity and security, and it remains so today.
