Many Australian industries have succeeded in finding alternative markets and have emerged from last year’s downturn with export volumes reaching pre-Communist sanctions levels, if not higher.
In April last year, the Australian government called on the international community to launch an independent investigation into the source of the Wuhan pneumonia (a Chinese Communist virus) epidemic, which, along with concerns about Hong Kong, the South China Sea and Xinjiang, angered the Beijing authorities, who have since imposed trade sanctions on barley, cotton, beef, wine, coal and other products, banning imports or imposing high tariffs.
However, the Australian government has become increasingly tough on the Chinese Communist Party in the face of public opinion, and recently announced that it has not only withdrawn the “Belt and Road” agreement signed between Victoria and the Chinese Communist Party, but also successfully found alternative markets for various industries.
BBC Chinese reported today that in May 2020, China’s Ministry of Commerce officially ignited the war by imposing a 6.9 percent countervailing duty rate on barley imports from Australia on the grounds of counteracting the Australian government’s subsidies to domestic farmers. The total value of Australia’s barley exports to China plummeted from $130 million in April 2020 to $64 million in May, and total global exports fell to 40% of April’s value. But by February this year, total Australian barley exports topped $130 million, surpassing the May 2020 level prior to the Communist Party’s sanctions.
Other goods subject to import tariffs imposed by the Chinese Communist Party are in a similar situation. Last October the Chinese Communist Party ordered cotton mills to stop purchasing Australian cotton, and the volume of Australian cotton exports then fell from $34 million in October to about $640,000 in January this year, but as Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Thailand and other countries quickly filled the gap in China, by February, Australia’s cotton exports to the world had recovered to about 90% of the October 2020 level.
In addition, the Chinese government ordered importers to stop buying Australian coal at one point in October 2020, causing Australia’s coal exports to China to fall from a peak of about $1.1 billion in May 2020 to just $22 million in February this year, but increased coal exports to Japan, India, South Korea and other countries kept total exports flat.
There are still some industries affected, including Australian wine, which fell from a peak of $150 million in exports in October last year to less than $10 million in December. While some wineries have managed to resell their wines to markets such as the United Kingdom and the United States, it has not been easy for some small winemakers to develop markets outside China in the short term.
Ironically, however, the Chinese Communist Party wanted to make an example of Australia through trade sanctions, but the alternative sources of sourcing were members of the “Five Eyes Alliance”, which has a tit-for-tat stance with the Chinese Communist Party, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and India, which has long had border friction with the Chinese Communist Party.
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