Canberra/Beijing: – While there are indications that the United States is preparing to intensify the conflict against China, analysts have given signs of a new trade war flaring up between China and Australia. Analysts warned that the threats issued by China, over the last few months and restrictions imposed on imports from Australia, along with the consistent, aggressive stand adopted by Australia against China would be causative factors for the trade war. Currently, the China-Australia bilateral trade is USD 235 billion, and Australian analysts claimed that China would be hit harder if the trade war is triggered.
In 2015, a free trade agreement was signed between Australia and China. This development became a high point in the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. At that time, the bilateral trade was USD 100 billion. Although the trade has more than doubled, in the next four years, Australian think tanks pointed out that the relations between the two countries have been consistently weakening. In 2017, the issue of Chinese interference in Australia came into limelight. Thereafter, Chinese activities in Australia were exposed one after the other.
China was expecting that Australia, one of China’s bigger marketplaces, will not take action to maintain trade relations. But China was cornered due to the aggressive stance adopted by the Australian leaders. Under the leadership of Scott Morrison, Australia adopted a policy of making the stance more and more aggressive against China. Scott Morrison’s government took some courageous decisions to reduce Chinese influence in the country. These include the laws made to stop Chinese investment and political interference in Australia. Australia, who has banned the Chinese company Huawei in the 5G sector, has also announced an independent policy to stop Chinese influence in the Pacific sector.
The stand adopted by Australia during the Coronavirus pandemic added fuel to this fire. China even issued a threat to Australia over this matter. Thereafter, China imposed an import duty of more than 80% on Australia products. A warning was also issued that the Chinese population will boycott Australian products. The group, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, claimed that this chronology indicates an impending flareup of a trade war between Australia and China.
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