(Economic Observer) How far is China-Australia economic and trade cooperation from "spring blossoms"?
China News Agency, Beijing, February 18 (Reporter Li Xiaoyu) After several years, the economic and trade relationship between China and Australia has finally taken an important step to get back on track.
Scholars in Beijing reminded that more efforts are still needed to make the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries truly "blossom in spring".
Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao recently held a video meeting with Australian Trade Minister Farrell.
Wang Wentao said that this meeting is an important step for the two sides to jointly push China-Australia economic and trade relations back on track, and expressed that China is willing to restart the economic and trade exchange mechanism with Australia.
China is Australia's largest trading partner.
However, due to various reasons, China-Australia economic and trade exchanges have been greatly affected in the past few years.
According to foreign media reports, in the long-term trade rift with China, in addition to key commodities such as iron ore, Australia's main export products such as wine, barley, seafood, and coal have been under pressure to varying degrees.
According to Chinese data, in 2022, while China's total import and export volume will increase by 7.7% year-on-year, the bilateral trade volume between China and Australia will decline by 0.9%, which is quite rare among China's major trading partners.
Among them, China's exports to Australia increased by 23% year-on-year, while imports from Australia decreased by 10.6%.
An important reason is that Chinese companies are unwilling to cooperate with Australian companies because they are worried about the complicated impact of bilateral relations.
Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that China and Australia have strong complementarity in terms of resource endowment, industrial structure, and economic development stage. Good progress has also been made in institutional frameworks including the Australia Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).
Despite some impacts, China-Australia trade will still exceed US$220 billion in 2022.
He said that the resumption of the China-Australia economic and trade exchange mechanism will provide institutional guarantees for the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, help companies boost confidence and form stable expectations.
This will not only benefit the companies of the two countries, but will also bring new market opportunities to companies from all over the world.
Qin Sheng, an assistant researcher at the Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also believes that when high inflation and other thorny issues plague the recovery of the world economy, as major countries, the restart of the economic and trade exchange mechanism between China and Australia will solve the bilateral and economic problems. Regional issues provide an institutionalized platform, which is a significant boon for both the regional and global economies.
In Qin Sheng’s view, as the two countries restart the economic and trade exchange mechanism, the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is expected to usher in an opportunity to upgrade, and the two sides also have more room for cooperation around China’s accession to the “Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement” (CPTPP). It is beneficial to both China and Australia.
During the talks, both China and Australia mentioned their willingness to strengthen cooperation in the fields of new energy and climate change.
Analysts believe that the two countries have both a basis for cooperation and common concerns in these two areas, and cooperation is expected to yield fruitful results.
For example, China is in a leading position in photovoltaic cells, new energy vehicles, wind turbines, etc. Cooperation can promote industrial transformation in related fields in Australia.
The talks between the trade ministers laid out a roadmap for bringing the economic and trade relations between the two countries back on track.
Although the China-Australia economic and trade relationship has been "blooming", there are still problems to be solved in order to truly "spring is warm and flowers are blooming".
In this meeting, China's position is clear. It will not avoid differences, nor will it exchange issues of principle.
Zhou Mi said bluntly that stable and lasting mutual trust is crucial to the smooth progress of China-Australia economic and trade cooperation.
This mutual trust includes trust in each other's ability to fulfill commitments, as well as consensus on the basic principles of economic and trade cooperation.
Considering that China-Australia economic and trade relations have been disturbed by "disharmonious notes", in the future, the two countries, especially Australia, should take active and powerful practical actions to rebuild mutual trust in the process of solving specific problems.
Dong Yan, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that for the sake of the stable development of China-Australia economic and trade relations, Australia should avoid unilateralism, protectionism and exclusive inappropriate practices, such as targeting Chinese companies in the name of national security. Strict review of investment in Australia, banning Huawei from participating in Australia's 5G network construction, etc.
"The key is for the Australian side to learn a lesson and stop 'turning over sesame cakes' and repeating policies."
Earlier, Shu Jueting, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, had stated that China was willing to communicate on some technical issues of mutual concern in bilateral trade to find mutually beneficial and win-win solutions. Enterprise investment provides a fair, open and non-discriminatory business environment.
"If the two sides can properly resolve these issues and strengthen cooperation on the premise of respecting each other's core interests, the prospects for China-Australia economic and trade relations are worth looking forward to," Qin Sheng said.
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