End all sanctions: Anthony Albanese tells China to end coal ban

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has told China there is no justification for continued sanctions against coal, saying it’s in that nation’s interests to get back to business with Australia.

It will be in China’s interests to drop its multibillion-dollar sanction against Australian coal, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, adding that it was time for all Beijing’s trade sanctions to end.

Beijing has been sending mixed signals in recent weeks on whether it will finally lift its unofficial sanctions against Australian coal.

Mining industry sources have said they had yet to see any movement on this front, and that while they had maintained business relationships with China they had also found new markets and formed new relationships as well.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Mr Albanese said it would be in everyone’s interest of China lifted sanctions not just against coal, but against all the $20 billion in Australian exports it has targeted.

“It’s in China’s interest to lift all of the sanctions against Australia. And it’s in Australia’s interest for that to happen as well,” Mr Albanese told Sky News.

“I want to co-operate with China where we can. I’ll stand up for Australia’s interests where we must. There is no justification for these sanctions on Australian products and they all should be lifted.”

China has targeted Australia with a variety of sanctions or trade restrictions over the past two and a half years, including on beef, barley, wine, coal, seafood and timber.

Since the ban on coal first came into place in November 2020, Queensland’s exports of the resource to China dropped from about $1 billion a month to almost nothing.

Queensland’s exports to China have dropped from a high of $28.7 billion in 2019 to $15.3 billion in 2021, according to Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade data.

Coal at the Port of Brisbane. Picture: AAP image/John Gass

The bulk of this decrease was coal exports dropping from almost $10 billion a year to $24 million, while beef trade dropped by $500 million to $706 million and wood dropped from $148 million to $76,000.

The China Daily, a state-owned Chinese masthead, has indicated that while the ban could end soon trade levels were unlikely to resume to the pre-2020 levels.

“Chinese importers may not have as strong an appetite to import Australian coal as before,” the China Daily stated.

But with Australian exporters having found new markets returning to pre-2020 levels would not have been possible regardless.