In 2014, tony Abbott, then Prime Minister of Australia, signed the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (CHAFTA) with China, making it one of the biggest achievements of his administration.
Years later, when relations between China and Australia recently fell into a trough, on July 27, local time, the former Australian prime minister claimed at a think tank event in the United Kingdom that if it were for now, he would never sign this trade deal with China now.
He claimed that Australia's experience was a "wake-up call" to the world, that China had not delivered on its "political promises" and that it was difficult for Australia to trust China, and that China "used false pretexts to block our exports to punish its disliked policy stances."
But in fact, Abbott's remarks are purely "cheap and sell well", and it is an indisputable fact that Australia has benefited from the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement for many years. Today, the deterioration of Sino-Australian relations, while affecting trade and other fields, is entirely caused by the Australian side, and the Australian side is responsible for this.
Screenshot of the Sydney Morning Herald report
According to the Australian media "Sydney Morning Herald" reported on July 28 local time, Abbott, who stepped down as the prime minister of Australia, has now become an advisory member of the British Trade Commission. On July 27, local time, he participated in an activity of the think tank "policy exchange" in London, England, which is close to the conservative party of the ruling British party.
When it comes to trade with China and chafta, Abbott's tone today is very different from that of many years ago.
"I can't imagine a trade deal between China and Australia today, and although my government reached one in 2014, it did increase their exports to us significantly, but we increased their exports to them even more."
Abbott declared, "because it is difficult for us to trust a country that uses false pretexts to block our exports in order to punish its disliked policy positions," and his government was "very friendly" to China when the deal was first struck.
Abbott claimed that if it had been for now, he would never have signed a trade deal with China, and Australia had "wishful thinking" that Chinese would become "more like us" as the process of global economic integration deepened. He claimed that China's commitment at the "political level" at the time had proved "hollow."
"Maybe in some ways, we're actually getting more like them." Abbott even said with a smile. "I certainly think it's a hell of a wake-up call, I don't think we've changed, I think the Chinese government and its actions have changed," he said. ”
Abbott delivers a video screenshot of his speech
The Sydney Morning Herald pointed out that because Abbott is currently serving on the British Trade Council, his remarks have been closely watched by the United Kingdom, and his position was appointed by liz truss, a prominent "Brexiteer" person and The British Trade Secretary.
It is well known that Terrass takes a "hawkish stance" on China policy, but when asked whether China's super-large-scale economic investment is similar to the "Trojan horse slaughter", her argument is still very cautious.
Speaking at a think tank event on the day, Terras said: "I think it's important that we work with like-minded allies to challenge this unfair practice." I think some of the practices that are currently under way, particularly in global trade, need to be challenged and that we should address this issue at a practical level. ”
Tras attends a think tank event video screenshot
The China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (CHAFTA), or China-Australia Free Trade Agreement for short, commenced negotiations in April 2005, and the two sides jointly declared the substantive conclusion of negotiations in November 2014, formally signed on June 17, 2015, and entered into force on December 20, 2015.
It is worth noting that Abbott's statement on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is purely "cheap and selling". The U.S. Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) pointed out in March that Australia is actually one of the few developed countries in the world that exports more to China than imports.
However, as relations between China and Australia have continued to deteriorate in recent years, especially since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has taken a series of measures in trade between the two countries, involving wine, barley, beef, lobster, coal, logs and other fields.
In this regard, the Australian media themselves are also aware of it. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (abc) has pointed out that among them, the Australian wine industry has become one of the most injured industries. China is Australia's largest wine export market, accounting for about 37% of Australia's wine exports, compared with only 28% before the signing of the China-Australia FTA.
The Sydney Morning Herald said that from 2015 to 2020, Australia's wine exports to China doubled. But in March of this year, it all came to an abrupt end.
On March 26 this year, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced the final ruling on the anti-dumping investigation of Australian wines, that is, there was dumping of import-related wines originating in Australia, the relevant domestic wine industry suffered substantial damage, and there was a causal relationship between dumping and substantial damage. Therefore, it was decided to impose anti-dumping duties on him for 5 years from 28 March 2021, with a tax rate of up to 218.4%.
The report quoted a new report as saying that Australian bottled wine is expected to stop exporting to China due to the impact of China's anti-dumping duties. The report said these effects will be felt in the short term and to a deep extent, because it takes time to develop entirely new markets, but even by 2025, only about 60% of the wines originally shipped to China will be sold in new markets.
As a result, grape growers along the coast of New South Wales, Australia, north-west Victoria and south-east South Australia will suffer a loss of $67 million by 2025.
On November 7, 2020, Australian wine brands participated in the 2020 China International Import Expo. The picture is from the surging image
Due to the heavy losses of the wine industry, Australia has frequently filed complaints with the WTO over China's imposition of anti-dumping duties on Australian wines.
On June 19, local time, Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan announced that he would file a complaint with the WTO on China's anti-dumping tariffs on Australian wine, and threatened that the Australian government would "actively defend the interests of its own wine industry".
This is the second time in six months that the Australian government has "filed a complaint" with the WTO. Former Australian Trade Minister Birmingham filed a complaint with the WTO over the barley trade dispute last December, and it took nearly half a year to finally be accepted.
However, Australian liquor giant Accolade Wines did not support the complaint, citing fears of further tariffs. Some Australian media are also not optimistic about the Australian government's "complaint", and Australian media abc said that in the next few years, the WTO is unlikely to reach a resolution on wine tariffs.
In fact, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce have repeatedly broken through, and the Australian government should be responsible for the deterioration of China-Australia relations.
"As the old saying goes, the bell must be tied to the ringer," Cheng Jingye, the Chinese ambassador to Australia, said in April when he attended a briefing by the China Council of Industry and Commerce in Australia and the trade issues between China and Australia: "Some people believe that the problems in the bilateral trade relationship are caused by China's economic coercion on Australia. What a ridiculous and irrelevant argument. ”
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