China-Australia trade ties remain strong for some businesses despite worsening political relations
- Volume of Australian shipments of beef to China in the first half of the year kept pace with last year, and Australian wine exports are moving along despite investigations
- While some traditional exports have been hit, other trade segments, including services and e-commerce consumer goods, are roaring
Trade between China and Australia continues to chug along with some businesses recording stronger sales in spite of the increasingly tense political conflict between the two countries, according to company officials.
Australian and Chinese trading companies and their customers have brushed aside the negative political climate between their countries to press on with business, despite several blows to specific trade segments in the five-month-long conflict. These include moves by China to impose a new anti-dumping tariff on barley, suspensions of certain beef imports and investigations into cheap Australian wine imports amid a coronavirus-led economic slowdown.
The political relationship between the two otherwise strong trading partners continues to worsen, with the most recent dispute in the past week targeting journalists and academics in both countries.
But in trade, things are different, with the volume of Australian shipments of beef to China in the first half of the year keeping pace with last year, indicating that demand has been largely unaffected by political issues, beef payments platform BeefLedger chairman Warwick Powell said.
However, the second half of the year may see shipments fall, Powell said, after an annual import threshold was reached. Additional imports are now subject to a higher import tariff.