TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Australia rebuffs China's appeal to 'join hands' in trade
Ambassador Xiao Qian urged Australia and other trading partners to "jointly respond to the changes of the world" in an opinion piece written for a Sydney newspaper.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Australia Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles attends a joint press conference with Philippine Secretary of Defense Carlito Galvez Jr at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on February 22, 2023.
(AFP/Jam Sta Rosa)
A
ustralia rebuffed China's appeal to "join hands" to defend trade on Thursday, as Beijing looks for partners to help it blunt US tariffs now ratcheted up to 125 percent.
Ambassador Xiao Qian urged Australia and other trading partners to "jointly respond to the changes of the world" in an opinion piece written for a Sydney newspaper.
"Under the new circumstances, China stands ready to join hands with Australia," Xiao wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald.
But Australia's defence minister Richard Marles was quick to pour cold water on notions of Canberra and Beijing uniting in "common cause".
"We're not about to make common cause with China, that's not what's going to happen here," Marles told Australia's Nine News.
"I don't think we'll be holding China's hand.
"We don't want to see a trade war between America and China, to be clear, but our focus is on actually diversifying our trade."
Australia is one of the United States' most steadfast security allies in a region coming to grips with China's rising military, economic and diplomatic might.
But China is also Australia's largest trading partner.
Australia has been slugged with a blanket 10 percent tariff on goods exported to the United States, despite some lawmakers questioning why Washington would seek to punish a friend.
US President Donald Trump abruptly paused the highest tariffs on most countries Wednesday after admitting they made the markets nervous, but doubled down on a spiralling trade war with China.
Trump said he was raising tariffs on China to 125 percent because of a "lack of respect".
US levies on Australia were also unchanged.
Trump, in a stunning reversal, on Wednesday said he would temporarily lower hefty duties on dozens of countries but continue to target China, raising the tariff to 125 percent from 104 percent, further escalating a trade war between the world's two largest economies.
That could pose a risk to Australia, which ships almost a third of its goods to China. Exports to the United States are less than 5 percent of Australia's total goods exports.
Australia's central bank has warned the ongoing uncertainty over tariffs and other trade restrictions between the US and other major economies could have a chilling effect on business investment and household spending decisions in the country.
Trump has imposed a unilateral 10 percent tariff on Australia, the low end of his reciprocal tariffs for all imports into the United States.
