China is trying to flex it's muscles against Australia

Placing prohibitive tariffs on so many of our exports to their Country.
At least this time around, Australia is starting to stand up to them, instead of Kowtowing to them as in the past.
The Government has referred China to the World Trade Organisation for it's Tariffs on our Barley imports.
Australia is stating that China is going against the terms of the World Trade Organisation.
I am pleased we a taking a stand.
Australian producers are going to be hurt big time with Tariffs so high that it is uneconomical to export product to China.
Many producers will go under because of China's Belligerence.
Come on World, Stand up to China and say, No More.

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Bushranger · 70-79, M

My main issue with this whole thing is that we've placed pretty much all our eggs in the China basket. Sure, they were a good cash cow but sending raw materials to predominately one country wasn't such a good idea in hindsight. And don't get me started on why we aren't doing a lot more in terms of renewable energy.

Gusman · 61-69, M

@Bushranger At some stage Countries have to fight back.
Australia is starting to show some Testosterone.
My hope is that we will continue to protest against China and find other markets for our product.

Bushranger · 70-79, M

@Gusman We should have been exploring other markets all along. That's just good business sense. We will never be able to take China head on in any sort of fight but we should be trying to explore alternative markets and products.

Gusman · 61-69, M

@Bushranger I am sure that we are looking at other markets, China does pay premium prices for a lot of out exports and other Countries may not be able to pay as much.
China does take 40%? of all of Australia's exports so if things got really bad and China said we will no longer import Australian Products then without doubt, Australia might fall into a deep recession for a long time.
Watch this space.

Bushranger · 70-79, M

@Gusman Sad, but true.

SW-User

@Bushranger One of the things that's stood out to me is that the trade agreement with China seemed to be very much one way, as in China's interest far more than ours. Like even with investments, China can invest in property, even buying our ports but there's little Australians can purchase in China. Hopefully this all makes things a little less one sided.

Bushranger · 70-79, M

@SW-User Australia has always been a price taker in world trade. We were never really big enough to set prices. Without a big domestic market, manufacturing industries can't get big enough to be sustainable either locally or internationally. But, and it's a pretty big but, we should still be able to value add some of our products. Metallurgic coal is one example; coke being lighter than coal should be cheaper to transport and also have a higher value to the end user. Research into alternatives, such as hydrogen for both transport and steel making should be a priority (hydrogen isn't the only option, but the first one that comes to mind). We have huge swathes of land that can be used to produce electricity to make hydrogen which can then be exported as well as used locally. Yes, it's currently not cost effective, however, with increased use prices should come down.

There's lots of additional options that would help our country as well as providing viable export opportunities. But we need a leadership that is willing to consider those options, not be fixed on a coal/natural gas economy.

SW-User

@Bushranger Good points you make and i really like the idea of us producing hydrogen from solar. That really makes sense to me.