China and Australia’s top trade officials to meet next week

SYDNEY - Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell will meet virtually next week for the first time since a change of government in Canberra, a sign of warming diplomatic and economic ties. 

The Trade Minister announced the meeting during an appearance on the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) on Tuesday night.

No official date has been announced yet, but Mr Farrell said he will be raising the issue of

China’s trade sanctions on Australian exports

with Mr Wang.

“We want these trade impediments removed and next week I have organised to speak with my Chinese counterpart virtually, to start the ball rolling,” Mr Farrell said in an interview with ABC’s 7:30 Report. 

The Chinese government placed trade restrictions on a range of Australian exports, including high tariffs and long Customs delays, after former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison called for an international investigation into Covid-19 in April 2020.

However since the election of the centre-left Labor government last May,

relations have improved between Canberra and Beijing.

In January, there were reports that Chinese importers were once again placing orders for Australian coal. 

There is no expectation of a quick end to the other trade restrictions at this stage. Australia still has a case against China before the World Trade Organisation over Beijing’s restrictions on exports, which is expected to be heard early this year.

Speaking in Canberra earlier in January, China’s Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian denied trade sanctions had been imposed by Beijing. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS