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China-Australia relations: Canberra needs to ‘sit down’ with Beijing over CPTPP, trade minister Dan Tehan says
- China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in September
- Australia is currently suing China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over tariffs on barley and wine amid ongoing tensions between Canberra and Beijing
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Australia will need to be able to conduct ministerial discussions with China as part of a process for the world’s second-largest economy to join a regional trade agreement, trade minister Dan Tehan said.
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“You have to able to sit down and work through specially on market access issues,” Tehan told Bloomberg Television from Singapore on Wednesday.
“So we would need some sort of ministerial dialogue to be able to work through that market accession.”
The remarks underline ongoing tensions between China and Australia that escalated further last year when Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, infuriating Beijing.
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In response, China imposed punitive trade actions targeting Australian commodities from coal to barley, lobsters and wine.
Australia is currently suing China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over tariffs on barley and wine.
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