July 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Australian Treasury Minister Jim Chalmers said on Sunday that China’s lifting of the trade ban on Australian products would be a “very welcome development” that would “stabilize” relations.
“An important part of stabilizing relations with China is lifting some of those sanctions on our exporters here in Australia,” Chalmers told Sky News television, referring to the nearly two-year ban on Australian coal. .
“We would like it to happen and we would like it to not stop there, it should also extend to the restrictions that are placed on some of our other exports,” he added.
The global coal crisis over Western sanctions on Russian energy exports in reaction to the war in Ukraine on February 24 has sparked moves in the resumption of purchases between China and Australia.
The Asian giant proposed last week to end the aforementioned prohibitions. “Australia has an opportunity to build ‘favorable conditions’ to improve trade relations,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, according to the Bloomberg agency.
Relations between China and Australia took a noticeable turn for the worse in 2018 when Canberra banned Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G network. Tension rose in late 2020 after Australia supported an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
As relations deteriorated, China has imposed tariffs on products imported from Australia, such as meat or coal.
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