Australia tells exporters to diversify from top trade partner China By Reuters

By Kirsty Needham

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia needs exporters to diversify markets and turn out to be much less reliant on China, as a result of it can not separate financial and strategic relationships, Overseas Minister Penny Wong mentioned a day after the commerce companions unveiled a path to ending a dispute.

Each nations have reached consensus to finish their dispute over barley, they mentioned on Tuesday, with Australia suspending a case on the World Commerce Group, whereas China hastens a evaluate of tariffs on Australian exports.

“Ensuring we do diversify our export markets is a crucial a part of our nationwide resilience,” Wong instructed Sky Information in a tv interview on Wednesday.

“And the federal government will proceed to encourage that as a result of we wish to be certain that we’ve got diversified export markets.”

Commerce value A$285 billion a yr continues with Australia’s main two-way buying and selling accomplice, whereas thawing ties see Beijing wind again impediments positioned on a raft of Australian commodity exports in 2020 amid a diplomatic dispute.

Nevertheless, it was necessary to recognise the connection between the 2 nations was “not going again to the place we had been 15 years in the past”, Wong mentioned in media interviews.

“We all know that we wish a extra steady relationship with China, however we all know we’re not going to have the ability to proceed to separate our financial and our strategic relationship,” she instructed 9’s In the present day Present.

As China operates as a “nice energy on the planet”, it was inevitable there could be areas the place Australia and China didn’t have the identical pursuits, she added.

Wong known as China’s current navy drills round Taiwan “destabilising”, including, “We’d urge de-escalation.”

“Australia’s place is, very clearly, no unilateral change to the established order,” she instructed Sky Information within the interview.