Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday hailed business ties with China, but skirted sensitive political issues, on the first day of an official visit to his nation’s key trade partner.
In a speech to business leaders in the financial hub of Shanghai, Turnbull praised a bilateral free-trade agreement signed last year as offering important new opportunities for Australian exporters.
China absorbs about a third of Australia’s exports, but China’s slowing demand for iron ore, coal and other resources has taken a major toll on Australia’s economy.
Photo: Reuters
Bilateral trade last year totaled A$150 billion (US$115 billion), down 6.3 percent.
While that dealt a massive shock to Australian trade, the nation is now “most of the way through” the crisis and looking for new opportunities in China’s efforts to stimulate personal consumption among its citizens, Turnbull said.
“It is with these objectives in mind that we embrace all of the extraordinary opportunities presented by China’s own economic transition toward a more consumption-driven economy,” Turnbull said, according to a copy of the speech provided by his office.
The China-Australia Free-Trade Agreement will eventually eliminate tariffs on almost all of Australian products sold to China. Turnbull singled out exporters of beef and dairy products, cherries, crayfish and wine as particular beneficiaries.
The pact will also ease employment terms for Australian service providers, including lawyers, educators and financial professionals, while encouraging investment in Australia by major Chinese firms, such as Baosteel, Bright Foods and property developer Greenland Group, he said.
China is also Australia’s most important tourism market, with more than 1 million visitors last year.
Australia would further smooth the way for its firms to enter the Chinese market with the establishment of a “landing pad” in Shanghai that is to provide physical space for Australian entrepreneurs, and access to networks and expertise, said Turnbull, who is leading a large delegation of government officials and about 1,000 business leaders.
Turnbull made no mention in his speech of concerns that Australia, a close US ally, has about Chinese activities in the highly disputed South China Sea, where Washington and others have accused Beijing of creating political instability by building artificial islands.
Turnbull was expected to touch on political issues with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) in Beijing later yesterday and again with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) today.
China responded harshly to critical comments about the South China Sea contained in Australia’s Defence White Paper, highlighting Canberra’s difficult task of striking a balance in its relationships with China and the US.
“These pose an acute policy dilemma for Australians, because while they know that their economic future depends on a strong relationship with China, they still believe that their security depends on their long-standing alliance with the US,” Australian National University professor of strategic studies Hugh White said in an editorial published in the Chinese English-language Global Times yesterday.
“Like many others in Asia, Turnbull wants to avoid escalating rivalry and instead see a peaceful transition to a new stable order in Asia, in which both the US and China play important leadership roles,” White wrote.
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