In a week of escalating trade tensions with China, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has called for Australia to establish an economic “plan to decouple from China.”
Fierravanti-Wells said Australia needed to rely less on China and develop its own manufacturing base for “strategic goods and services” including medical and pharmaceutical equipment.
She said Australia needs to devise a “plan for reparations” and a plan to “reduce our dependency on the communist regime.”
Fierravanti-Wells told The Epoch Times on May 11 that Australia’s “over-reliance” on the Chinese economy will be “weaponised” by the Chinese communist regime to influence the nation’s long-term interests.
“The Government must finally understand that putting 26.4 percent of our trade eggs in the China basket has made us overly vulnerable as was evidenced by the recent comments from the Chinese ambassador,” she said.
Currently, Australia’s top five exports to China are iron ore, natural gas, coal, gold, and wool, which the senator said was “critical” to China’s economic growth. She said Australia, in turn, imported from China – telecom equipment, computers, furniture, refined petroleum, children’s goods, sporting goods, and textiles.
“This demonstrates the extent of our dependency on China but also the enormous scope for greater self–reliance.”
Australia’s next largest trading partners are Japan (9.9 percent of trade), and the United States (8.6 percent).