Australian PM Doesn’t Rule Out CCP Involvement In Pacific Trade Bloc

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives at Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, China, on Nov. 4, 2023. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has not ruled out the possibility of Australia backing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) efforts to join a trans-pacific trade agreement.

The prime minister touched down in Beijing on the evening of Nov. 5 after spending a number of days in Shanghai upon accepting Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s invitation to attend the 2023 China International Import Expo.

Mr. Albanese is the first Australian prime minister to visit China since Malcolm Turnbull in 2016.

Speaking to journalists at the expo, the prime minister said that the CCP’s admission to the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) will depend on their future adherence to the partnership’s regulations.

“What we’ve said is any country must demonstrate that it can meet the high standards of the agreement and that is the basis of that going forward,” Mr. Albanese said.

“The arrangements that are in place for the CPTPP are that it needs unanimous agreement. The United Kingdom has just had a session to the agreement there. My understanding is there are six countries that have applied. And we will deal with that in an appropriate way.”

The prime minister also outlined his ambitions to improve trade relations between Australia and China.

“We want to see any impediments which are there for our trade to be removed and dealt with,” he said.

“We have strong confidence that we will continue to be able to benefit from exporting our materials, including our resources, to China.”

Trade Relations

The Chinese regime has replaced its long held hawkish stance on Sino-Australian relations with somewhat of a soft touch as of recent.

In response to the Morrison government’s call for an inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP gradually began to impose sanctions on a wide range of agricultural products including barley, beef, cotton, lamb, lobsters, timber, and wine.

After a change in Australian government last year, the CCP began to gradually rescind these restrictions. In August, duties on Australian barley were removed, shortly followed by those imposed on coal and timber.

Tariffs placed on Australian seafood, red meat, and wine are yet to be lifted, but both the prime minister and Minister for Trade Don Farrell are hopeful that ground on the matter will soon be made.

The Chinese regime’s newfound soft touch on Australian trade relations is speculated by many to have been adopted in its ambitions to join the CPTTP.

There is also the reality of a wide disparity between attitudes towards the Chinese regime from Labor and Coalition governments.

Labor politicians have traditionally sought to strengthen ties with the CCP whilst Coalition politicians are often critical of the regime’s human rights abuses and impropriety when it comes to conducting trade.

Victorian Liberal Senator James Paterson believes letting the CCP into the proposed agreement would be a misguided decision.

“In my view, it would be absurd to admit as a member of one of the highest standard agreements in the world a country which until recently had engaged in up to $20 billion of economic sanctions against the bilateral free trade agreement,” Mr. Paterson told ABC Radio.

Senator Paterson also articulated the notion that believing the CCP would act in accordance with the bloc’s rules is naive.

“If the Chinese government is not able to abide by the standards it voluntarily agreed to enter into under the Australian free trade agreement, why should we expect that they will behave any differently in the future?”

In stepping up his regime’s push to join the CPTPP, Chinese Premier Li Qiang has vowed to reject protectionism and abide by the international rules-based order.

Trading Composition

China is Australia’s largest trading partner by a significant margin. According to the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (ATIC), China accounts for 27 percent of Australia’s two-way trade. The second largest partner is Japan, accounting for just under 10 percent.

According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Australia depends on China for 35 percent of its exports as of June this year, whereas China only relies on Australia for 5.23 percent of its exports.

Then there’s the nature of the goods and services traded themselves. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), around 75 percent of Australia’s exports to China are unprocessed primary commodities while 93 percent of China’s exports to Australia are complex manufactured goods.