China trade ‘battering’ shows no signs of ending University of Southern Queensland’s Ben Lyons says

Bans have been placed on several Darling Downs abattoirs from exporting to China, and there’s been no sign of it ending anytime soon.

Trade tensions with China show no sign of ending, a leading University of Southern Queensland trade expert says.

Rural Economies Centre of Excellence director Associate Professor Ben Lyons said 2020 was the year Australia’s trade relationship with China had deteriorated to its slowest levels ever.

“Unfortunately the firewall between ideology and economics has broken down,” he said.

“That firewall has been in place for some years, since we renewed our relationship with China in 1974.”

Tensions began in May, when several abattoirs in Australia, including Beef City in Toowoomba, were banned from exporting to China.

Those bans remain in place, as does a ban on the John Dee Abattoir in Warwick.

That followed comments in April by China’s ambassador to Australia, Jingye Cheng, who questioned whether the Chinese people would want to eat Australian beef given Australia’s push for a COVID-19 investigation.

“The Chinese public is frustrated, dismayed and disappointed with what Australia is doing now,” Mr Jingye said at the time.

“Maybe also the ordinary people will say why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?”

Since then barley, cotton, lobsters, and a number of other agriculture exports have had tariffs placed on them or been subject to other restrictions.

When tensions began, there were fears of a trade war between Australia and China, but Prof Lyons said it wasn’t a trade war.

“It’s not a trade war when one side is just bashing the other,” he said.

“It’s completely unknown when it will end.

“That will depend on what is going on internally with Chinese politics, the US election will have a bearing on it.”

Prof Lyons said he was hopeful trade relationships would be restored, as relationships between businesses in the two countries were quite strong.

In the Darling Downs region, beef and cotton have been the two industries mostly impacted by trade issues with China.

“Australia sells about $13 billion in ag product from the farm to China,” Prof Lyons said.

“We’re one of those rare countries that export more into China than we import from China.

“We’re not in a great space, how we get out of it is unknown, how long it takes is unknown.

“Given the Trade Minister has not heard from his Chinese counterpart for a long time, there is radio silence coming from China. They’re ignoring us.

“If the Government go to the World Trade Organisation and get Geneva to call them in and bring them to account, I don’t know whether that would work either.”