October
- Opinion
- US Votes 2024
Trump or Harris, America’s Asia trade strategy won’t change
Whoever wins next week’s election, Asia’s international economic diplomatic challenge remains the same: to keep the global multilateral trade enterprise alive.
- Peter Drysdale and Liam Gammon
- Opinion
- Australian economy
How Australia can help save rules-based trade
The global trading system of trade rules faces its gravest crisis since its inception. There is a way out and Australia can help.
- Craig Emerson
September
- Opinion
- East Asia Forum
China’s had deflation before. This is what it needs to do this time
Balance sheet issues were central to the contraction in previous deflationary episodes, and the resolution of these was key. Policymakers should focus on that.
- Updated
- Huw McKay
- Opinion
- Japan
Japan and Australia face a turning point in world history
Tokyo and Canberra back a free and open international order against unilateral attempts to coerce, says a contender in Japan’s prime ministerial race.
- Yoko Kamikawa
August
Canada tries to halt China’s EV flood with 100pc tariffs
The move replicates US and EU measures as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says China “is not playing by the same rules” as everyone else over electric vehicles.
- Promit Mukherjee and Akash Sriram
- Opinion
- China relations
High-level dialogue shows China chill is ending
The resumed annual face-to-face meeting of government and industry has been crucial to stabilising the relationship.
- Craig Emerson
- Exclusive
- International affairs
When Keating went to war with the White House
Secret cables reveal for the first time how Keating’s right-hand man and a senior White House official engaged in an extraordinary war of words in 1992, sometimes in personal terms.
- James Curran
- Opinion
- East Asia Forum
Australia should focus on rules, not ‘rules-based order’, in Asia
Support for the transition from a US-led world to a multipolar world is gaining traction.
- Anthony Milner
- Opinion
- US election
What does China make of America’s topsy-turvy election?
Beijing will have trouble working out whether a hard or soft approach to a new US administration will work best.
- Ian Bremmer
July
- Exclusive
- China relations
New swipe at China over trade as lobster exports remain on ice
China should give up the favourable treatment it receives as a developing nation in the global trading system, the Albanese government says.
- Andrew Tillett
This could be the funniest business book you’ll read all year
Former Australian trade negotiator Dmitry Grozoubinski has written a tome about international trade policy. And for that, he’s very, very sorry.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Exclusive
- China relations
Cheaper kitchen sinks as Canberra dismantles tariff barrier to China
While Australian lobster remains off the menu in Beijing, the Albanese government is removing tariffs on Chinese-made kitchen sinks.
- Andrew Tillett
June
China, EU agree to talks to head off EV trade war
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis will hold discussions to ease an escalating dispute.
- Keith Bradsher
- Opinion
- East Asia Forum
Global supply chains at risk without new WTO rules for digital trade
The World Trade Organisation, despite its flaws, remains the only single vehicle able to attract multilateral participation, and business needs it more than ever.
- John Denton
- Opinion
- East Asia Forum
History will judge the new era of US protectionism harshly
The unseemly contest by Joe Biden and Donald Trump to outdo each other in trade protectionism will make the world become less prosperous and more unpredictable.
- Gary Hufbauer
May
- Opinion
- Globalisation
America is undermining global rules, not defending them
Washington should dial down its claim to be protecting an international order that is clearly in decline, and instead talk up its defence of the free world.
- Gideon Rachman
- Opinion
- East Asia Forum
US, China protectionism race benefits no one
To counter competition from China, the United States is becoming more like China, and Australia and other nations have joined the game.
- Shiro Armstrong
- Opinion
- Globalisation
America’s race to tear up trade rules hurts everyone
The US is growing tired of upholding the economic rules it laid out for the world after 1945. But tariffs only punish consumers and undermine competitiveness.
- Edward Luce
‘Made in Australia’ won’t trigger subsidy arms race, minister says
Industry subsidies used to be taboo in the trade world. But Tim Ayres, spruiking the government’s new industrial policy in Europe, says things have changed.
- Hans van Leeuwen
March
Bidenomics is making China angry. That’s OK
Biden’s China policy is so tough that it makes me, someone who generally favours a rules-based system, nervous.
- Paul Krugman