Asia

Commentary: Chinas tantrums at Australia can be self-defeating

adminSeptember 10, 20203 Mins read83 Views

SYDNEY: When Canberra called for an international, independent inquiry into COVID-19 in April, Beijing deployed trade restrictions measures against Australian beef and barley the next month.

And so when the Australian government responded firmly to China imposing a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong at the end of June, the Australian Financial Reviews Andrew Tillett and Mike Smith wrote that “the government [was] privately bracing for a trade backlash as punishment”.

Sure enough, what followed was an anti-dumping investigation into Australian wine, another meat processor having its certification to supply the Chinese market suspended, and barley exports from a major Perth-based grain company barred on food safety grounds.

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A BREWING TRADE WAR?

Trade minister Simon Birmingham says that “Australia is certainly not engaging in any type of trade war [with China]”. The Perth US-Asia Centres Jeff Wilson concurred to the extent it was more a one-way “trade bashing”.

Yet Weihuan Zhou of the University of New South Wales also observes: “Australia itself has been one of the most frequent users of anti-dumping measures, particularly against China”.

And after watching Treasurer Josh Frydenberg block the sale of a dairy and drinks manufacturer from a Japanese owner to a Chinese one last month – despite the deal having the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission – the Australian National Universitys Jane Golley assessed: “Were on the verge of a trade and investment war – if were not already in one”.

BUT TRADE IS GROWING

While todays situation is dire, there are still a few data points that suggest not all is lost.

The background is a deteriorating political relationship since at least 2017. Yet despite that, two-way trade has continued to grow.

Officials played down fears Australia was headed for a trade war with China, its biggest export market for barley. (File photo: AFP/Loic Venance)

In 2017, Australias exports to China were worth US$116 billion, accounting for 30 per cent of the total. By 2019, they had reached US$169.1 billion, a 34.3 per cent share.

And while the headlines this year have gravitated to instances increasingly appearing as Chinese trade punishment, in the first seven months of 2020, the total value of Australias goods exports to China is steady on the same period a year earlier. This is during a period in which much of the global economy has been in deep recession.

This is during a period in which much of the global economy has been in deep recession.

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A further 20 or so are also able to sell the frozen product, which accounts for around 85 per cent of all Australian beef exports to China by volume.

The barley story is different because prohibitive tariffs wiped out the trade.

But these measures followed an 18-month Chinese anti-dumping investigation that gave Australian grain growers the opportunity to switch to other crops and seek out alternative markets. Many did precisely that.

SOME RESTRAINT NEEDED EVEN WHILE THROWING A TANTRUM

Of course, China is not exercising restraint out of benevolence. Trade is, by definition, a win-win exchange.

So stopping trade means China loses too. Beijing could delist all Australian meat processors. But where would Chinese consumers get their high-quality meat protein from then?

The Australian flag flutters in front of the Great Hall of the People during a welcoming ceremony. (Photo: REUTERS/Jason Lee)

Nor are Australian producers always without market power. In recent months, China has slipped to being Australias fourth-largest beef market, with the US, Japan and Korea leapfrogging it to consume the balance.

Perhaps Beijings calculations are even more simple: Deep down it knows trade tantrums wont work, so whats the point in trying too hard?

The fact is that resisting aggressive Chinese moves is a domestic political winner for the Scott Morrison government, and nowadays even the voices of groups with interests in urging moderation in Australian government policies, such as the business sector, have grown quieter.