In a significant step towards mending strained bilateral relations, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers will become the first Australian government minister in his key economic role to visit China in seven years. Chalmers is scheduled to fly to Beijing on Thursday for a two-day visit, a move that underscores the efforts to rebuild bridges between the two nations. The last Australian treasurer to visit China was Scott Morrison in 2017, a time when relations were far more amicable. However, under Morrison’s leadership, tensions escalated, reaching a nadir following the 2022 general election, which saw the conservative government replaced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor Party.
Chalmers emphasized that the primary aim of his visit is to co-chair the Australia-China Strategic Economic Dialogue on Thursday with He Lifeng, the chair of China’s National Development and Reform Commission. This dialogue, last held in 2017, will focus on enhancing trade and investment between the two countries, exploring avenues for collaboration between Australian and Chinese businesses, according to government documents. “This is another really important step towards stabilizing our economic relationship with China,” Chalmers told reporters in Brisbane. “It will be part of the Albanese government‘s methodical and coordinated efforts to reestablish dialogue with China, Australia’s largest trading partner,” he added.
The bilateral relationship plunged to new lows in 2020 after the Morrison government called for an independent investigation into the origins and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, China imposed various official and unofficial bans on Australian products, including coal, cotton, wine, barley, beef, lobsters, and wood, causing estimated losses of up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) annually for Australian exporters. Fortunately, most of these trade obstacles have been removed since the conservative government’s departure after nine years in office.
In November 2022, Albanese became the first Australian prime minister to visit China in seven years, signaling a renewed commitment to fostering positive relations. This was reciprocated in June when Li Qiang, the Chinese Premier, became the first to visit Australia in seven years. However, despite these positive developments, Australia remains cautious about its economic ties with China, the world’s most populous nation. Consequently, Australia is actively seeking to strengthen its economic connections with other global powers, notably India.
On Wednesday, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met with his Australian counterpart Don Farrell in Australia to discuss progress on a new bilateral free trade deal, building upon a 2022 pact. “As a testimony of the importance that the Australia relationship is to India, we are looking at significantly upscaling our partnerships in trade, investment, tourism and technology and therefore one of the first announcements I’d like to make is that we shall shortly be setting up in Sydney an office covering all these four areas,” Goyal told reporters in Farrell’s hometown of Adelaide. Australia has had a free trade agreement with China since 2015.
