Coronavirus Australia: Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas defends Belt and Road deal with China

State Treasurer Tim Pallas has blamed ‘inelegant interventions’ and language to ‘vilify China’ for Beijing’s trade manoeuvres.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas.

Victoria’s Treasurer has blamed “inelegant interventions” and a “use of language” to “vilify China” for the country’s decision to suspend beef imports from four Australian abattoirs and threaten tariffs on Australian barley.

Defending the Andrews government’s Belt and Road deal with the Chinese government as he faced questions at Victorian parliament’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee coronavirus inquiry, Treasurer Tim Pallas said Victoria’s relationship with China “benefits all Victorians, from farmers exporting their produce to our universities and beyond”.

China on Tuesday moved to suspend imports from four large abattoirs, located in Queensland and NSW, following news Australia will push for a global independent probe into the origins of COVID-19 at the World Health Assembly this week.

Earlier this week, China threatened to impose severe tariffs on Australian barley exports.

Mr Pallas claimed the federal government had struck “similar arrangements” to Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement with China.

Daniel Andrews in Tiananmen Square. Picture: Twitter

“The only difference is we’ve made our arrangements public,” Mr Pallas said.

Asked whether Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement should be paused pending the outcome of an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus, Mr Pallas said: “Absolutely not”.

“The inquiry, and of course there does need to be an inquiry into this pandemic event, but I think the idea of vilification of any single nation in this context, I think, is dangerous, damaging and probably irresponsible in many respects,” Mr Pallas said.

“I’d make the point that from a commercial point of view, the people who will suffer profoundly, having seen a 50 per cent growth in trade with China since this government’s been in office, from $19bn to $29bn, will be farmers, and we’re seeing those matters played out.

“I mean, perhaps inelegant interventions have essentially seen farmers lose trade around barley, and meatworks losing work around meat.

“We need to basically be balanced and measured in terms of our engagement with a valuable and long-term trading partner, and certainly this government has no intention of seeking to vilify a government because of its system of government.

“We trade with every government, and we do that essentially because it’s in Victoria’s material interests to do that, and of course our relationship with China has played a very substantial role.”

Asked to respond to the suspension of meat imports, Mr Pallas said they related to meatworks, “none of which are in Victoria”.

“But I will make the point that this is inevitably a consequence of the use of language that I think has seemed to vilify China rather than to recognise that these are events that will need appropriate scrutiny and review in time,” he said.

“What they don’t need is vilification of one nation who have gone through a very traumatic time themselves and need necessarily to recover their economy, and we see a partnership with all trading nations as being a vital part of the growth and the opportunity for Victorians.”

Premier Daniel Andrews broke ranks with the federal government in October 2018 when Victoria became­ the only Australian jurisdiction to sign a memorandum of understanding with Beijing on the controversial BRI on trade and investment­ — a scheme seen by Canberra as a vehicle for Chinese regional and global expansion.

The four-page MOU said Victoria­ would work with China to promote the “connectivity” of policy, infrastructure, trade, finance and people­, while acknowledging the state was “welcoming and supportin­g” of the BRI and would promote “the Silk Road spirit”.

Mr Andrews travelled to China to sign a second BRI deal in October last year, agreeing on areas of co-operation including increasing the involvement of Chinese companies in Victoria’s $107bn infrastructure program.