US can take lessons from Australia in reducing trade reliance on China, US lawmaker says
- Supply chain integrity and added autonomy in the private sector are crucial for national security, says Representative Chrissy Houlahan
- The Australians ‘had to retool their economy to succeed without having China as a strong trading partner’, and the US is encouraged to do the same
The US needs to re-establish supply chain integrity as a path to domestic security and work more closely with allies as it competes with China, a US congresswoman said on Tuesday.
“We need to figure out ways to bypass economic reliance on China,” Representative Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, said at an event hosted by the Washington-based Hudson Institute. “There are lessons to learn from Australia, Japan and Vietnam.”
Australia in particular has felt the economic impact stemming from political tensions with China. In 2020, Canberra’s call to investigate the origins of Covid-19 was met with a flurry of economic reprisals from Beijing, but it has since found success in moving to other trade relationships.
“They had to retool their economy to succeed without having China as a strong trading partner,” said Bryan Clark, who leads the think tank’s Centre for Defence Concepts and Technology.
The United States is looking to that example as lawmakers explore strategies to bolster technological and supply chain independence and to reduce dependency on Chinese goods and raw materials.