Australia today condemned China’s ban on coal imports as a clear violation of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Relations between the two countries are further strained.
But Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Beijing has yet to confirm the reports in China’s state media. Australia’s multi-billion dollar coal export industry is now unofficially blocked by China, according to reports.
China’s power plants have been ordered to buy domestic coal, as well as coal from countries other than Australia, the state-run nationalist tabloid Global Times said Thursday.
“If that is the case, it is clearly a violation of WTO norms… and a violation of our free trade agreements with each other, so we hope that is not the case,” Mr Morrison said.
“We’re trying to make sense of it,” Morrison said. However, there are reportedly no ministerial contacts between the two countries.
Australia’s relations with China are at their lowest point since the 1989 tiananmen Crackdown, with Beijing imposing a number of economic sanctions on Australian products.
While each dispute is based on a technical issue, the regime in Canberra believes the sanctions are in retaliation for Australia’s retaliation against Chinese Communist party influence at home and in the Asia-Pacific region.
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