There has been no immediate breakthrough in Australia’s ongoing trade dispute with China but the situation is “heading in the right direction”, Trade Minister Don Farrell said.
Upon returning home from a recent trip to Beijing, Farrell said that while his excursion was “warm and engaging”, tariffs imposed on Australia “won’t be resolved overnight”.
“It was a very, very warm and engaging meeting, a candid meeting with the Trade Minister,” Farrell said on Today.
“We’ve explained just how much damage these tariffs and other bans have done to our trading relationship and we’ve asked for the Chinese government to lift these bans.
“There are some good signs, Australian cotton is back into Chinese markets, same with copper.
“We’re well down the track of resolving the dispute over barley, and of course we’re going to use the processes that we developed to resolve the barley dispute with wine.”
Farrell said the process is occurring incrementally, and significant progress is expected within the next two months.
“The problems didn’t occur overnight,” he said.
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“They won’t be resolved overnight, but we’ve got to persevere and persist – that’s my job.
“The barley dispute, we expect to be resolved in the next month or two.
“That’s well down the track – all of the information I got from the ambassador and our officials in Beijing was very, very positive.
“But we’re working through each of the issues.”
In 2020, China imposed an 80.5 per cent combined tariff on Australian barley exports in as relations between Canberra and Beijing hit a low point.
Since then, Chinese authorities have also imposed trade sanctions on other Australian good such as coal, wine and seafood.
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