Australian PM Confirms Visit to China

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during Question Time at Parliament House on February 14, 2023 in Canberra, Australia. Photo by Martin Ollman/Getty Images

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that he will travel to China from Nov. 4 to 7, where he is scheduled to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.

The prime minister said the visit will build on the previous discussions and increased ministerial engagement with Beijing over the last 12 months.

“I look forward to visiting China, an important step towards ensuring a stable and productive relationship,” he said.

“I welcome the progress we have made to return Australian products, including Australian wine, to the Chinese market. Strong trade benefits both countries.”

China accounts for for almost one-third of total Australian trade.

“One in four of Australia’s jobs depend upon trade and our most significant trading partner in terms of our exports is China, which is larger than our next three partners—South Korea, Japan, and the United States—combined,” Mr. Albanese told reporters.

“So this is an important relationship,” he said, adding that it would be particularly important for grape growers who have found it difficult to diversify from the Chinese market.

Mr. Albanese’s trip will be the first visit to China by an Australian prime minister since 2016.

It will also mark the 50th anniversary of former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s visit to China in 1973, when Australia formally established diplomatic ties with the ruling communist party in Beijing.

“Prime Minister Whitlam’s historic visit laid the groundwork for the diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties that continue to benefit our countries today,” Mr. Albanese said.

Wine Trade Progress

The announcement comes just as both nations “reached an agreement” to resolve the ongoing trade dispute over Australian wine.

The Australian government agreed to suspend its World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade dispute while Beijing reassesses its tariffs.

“We welcome China’s agreement to undertake an expedited review of its duties. This process is expected to take five months,” Mr. Albanese said.

If the duties have not been removed by the time the review is completed, Australia will resume its dispute resolution process.

“We are confident of a successful outcome,” Mr. Albanese said.

Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, Senator Simon Birmingham, said the review was a welcome step but noted the tariffs should never have existed to begin with.

“It was an attempt at economic coercion by China. The tariffs were never justified,” he told ABC.

Mr. Birmingham also said he was confident that a draft World Trade Organisation (WTO) report into Australia’s dispute over Beijing’s tariffs—released by the WTO last week but not yet made public—would have found that the Chinese tariffs breached WTO rules.

“They are clearly in breach of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement and the undertakings that China had given to Australia,” he said.

“And so, they should not just be reviewed, but they should be removed and removed forthwith.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Chinese ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, said he was “optimistic” that the trade dispute would be resolved but noted it would take some time.

“There are concerns from the Chinese side, there are concerns from the Australian side, and we will try to sort out those issues,” he told reporters.

“We’re in that process, and we expect there will be more positive outcomes in the coming ... weeks or months.”

Similarly to wine, Chinese tariffs on Australian barley were lifted on Aug. 4 after the Albanese government agreed to temporarily suspend its WTO trade dispute in April.

This photo shows a paddock of barley being harvested on a farm near Inverleigh, Australia on Dec. 14, 2020. William West/AFP via Getty Images

Australian wine and barley are some of the products that were slapped with arbitrary trade sanctions by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2020 after the Australian Morrison government called for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19. CCP authorities admitted the move, which impacted $20 billion (US$12.6 billion) worth of exports, was politically motivated.

Other Australian goods that were impacted by the trade wars included timber and coal, which have since resumed normal trading. Meanwhile, other exports such as Australian wine, lobster, and cotton continue to be affected.