Australian coal hit by Chinese protectionism, says Simon Birmingham
Australia is trying to fully understand Beijing “protectionist pressures” delaying coal shipments to China.
Chinese government protectionism is hitting Australian coal exports to China, says Trade Minister Simon Birmingham.
“We do know there is some domestic protectionist type pressures that exist around support for China’s coal industry, possibly some...in relation to limited steel production,” Senator Birmingham said.
“So we’re trying to understand all of those moving parts and of course watching very close what’s happening at all of the ports in terms of the speed of processing times.”
Australian coal exports have been hit by slower processing times and delays since earlier in the year, leading to concerns China may be implanting non-tariff barriers to retaliate for Australia’s move to effectively ban Huawei from Australia’s 5G network.
Despite Australian coal exports being seen as high quality, Senator Birmingham said some of the reasons given for the go-slow were environmental.
“There is certainly a higher level of checking of quarantine checks and the like that seems to be occurring,” he said.
“Some of the reasons given are environmental reasons. If that’s the case we have nothing to fear because Australia’s coal is among the best in the world in terms of the environmental standards that are used.”
Senator Birmingham said Chinese authorities were still insisting the delays were not targeted at Australia.
“We still do have some delays and we’re monitoring that situation closely and we take the Chinese authorities at their word that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has given, that the Chinese ambassador has given to both myself and Foreign Minister Marise Payne, that these are not country specific they are not targeted at Australia.”
The Trade Minister also said Australia was making preparations for Brexit after the UK parliament voted for a possible extension of the date the country leaves the EU.
He said a no-deal Brexit could benefit some Australian exporters.
“That would actually be an improvement because right now while the UK is a member of the EU then their tariff rates are the same as the EU,” he said.
“What they released yesterday are tariff rates that indicate if a no-deal Brexit occurs then for the next 12 months in no tariff lines we will see an increase in those tariffs and in a number of areas for Australia, beef as you mentioned, as well as wine and as well as sugar we would actually see tariffs reduced or eliminated, larger quotas available for Australian goods.”