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China-Australia relations: Canberra ‘prepared to pay economic price’ of trade dispute with Beijing
- Australia’s ties with China have frayed since 2018, and worsened when it led calls for an independent probe into the origins of coronavirus in Wuhan
- Beijing has responded with a volley of punitive trade actions that have hit commodities from coal to barley, lobsters and wine
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Australia is prepared to take the economic hit from China’s trade measures to defend its sovereignty, trade minister Dan Tehan said, even as he pursues efforts to open dialogue with counterparts in Beijing.
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“If we have to pay an economic price for that, that’s something that we’re prepared to pay,” Tehan said in an interview in Washington, where he is meeting with the Biden administration to try to work out how to counter China’s actions.
“In the end our values are so important to us and we think that they’re something that we have to protect above all else.”
Australia’s ties with China have frayed since 2018, when it barred Huawei Technologies Co. from building its 5G network, and went into free fall last year as Prime Minister Scott Morrison led calls for an independent probe into the origins of coronavirus in Wuhan.
There is collective action we can all take with regards to dealing with economic coercion
Beijing has responded with a volley of punitive trade actions that have hit commodities from coal to barley, lobsters and wine.
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“There is collective action we can all take with regards to dealing with economic coercion,” Tehan said of how best to react.
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