Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese plans to travel to China from this weekend, seeking to strengthen ties with his country’s largest trading partner while its top security ally, the US, aims to check Beijing’s presence in Asia.
The Australian leader yesterday said that he would visit Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, where the country has consular operations, starting from Saturday.
“China’s an important trading partner for Australia, 25 percent of our exports go to China,” he told reporters in Hobart. “What that means is jobs, and one of the things that my government prioritizes is jobs.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
The delegation would include top executives from Macquarie Bank Ltd. and HSBC Holdings PLC’s Australia arm, as well as from Fortescue Ltd, BlueScope Steel Ltd, Rio Tinto Ltd and BHP Group Ltd, the Australian Financial Review said, citing people it did not identify.
Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian (肖千) wrote earlier this week that Beijing is open to expanding the free-trade agreement between the countries to cover artificial intelligence, health care and renewable energy.
The visit comes as US President Donald Trump has unleashed a series of punishing tariffs, expected to go into effect on Aug. 1, barring any bilateral deals. That pressure, aimed at spurring domestic industry, has isolated allies and trading partners like Australia, which has a longstanding security partnership with Washington.
Albanese said Australia continues to negotiate with the Trump administration to lower tariffs below the 10 percent baseline in force at the moment, which Washington has said repeatedly would likely be the floor for all countries.
Meanwhile, Albanese’s government has helped thaw relations with Beijing, its biggest trading partner and customer for raw materials and wine. Albanese said his government has been able to remove impediments that blocked more than A$20 billion (US$13.1 billion) worth of goods going to China.
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