Chinese Premier Li Keqiang wraps up Australia visit following trade talks

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: “We have a $150 billion two-way trade relationship, making China our largest trading partner by a wide margin, and nearly two million people travel between our countries each year”.

‘Australia is the only country in the world with this market access, ‘ Mr Turnbull said, adding Australian chilled beef exports to China are already worth $400 million a year.

China is Australia’s largest trade partner and its economic importance has grown in the Donald Trump era after the U.S. president ripped into Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a decorum-breaking phone call, fraying relations.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, left, and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull clap during a signing ceremony in Canberra, Friday, March 24, 2017. “China is the largest trader of goods in the world, so one can easily imagine how many Chinese interests are at stake here”. The Premier said she would visit China in December to attend the NSW-Guangdong Joint Economic Meeting (JEM), and lead a delegation to Guangdong touring business centres and tech hubs across China.

“Together Australia and China are focused on promoting food security and safety and ensuring continued access to safe, high quality and reliable produce”. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the sea.

Li Keqiang and his wife arrived in Canberra late on Wednesday night as part of a seven-day tour of Australia and New Zealand.

The approach from China and New Zealand to free trade stands in contrast to that of the US, where President Donald Trump has pulled out of a planned Pacific free-trade agreement and has expressed skepticism about other such agreements. Their bilateral trade reached some 108 billion United States dollars a year ago.

Trade Minister Todd McClay said closer ties with Beijing need not affect relations with Washington, which has withdrawn from the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade deal, a pact that would have included New Zealand but excluded China.

No doubt protectionism is going to win applause somewhere somehow, said Liu, but it would not change the prospects between China and Australia.

At the end of the meeting, English said official talks to upgrade the existing FTA between the nations will start on April 25 with a goal of building on the deal that’s seen two-way trade triple to $23 billion since it came into force in 2008.

China “cannot close our doors” to solve its trade imbalance with Australia, which previous year left the Chinese with a $50 billion deficit largely through industrial demand for iron ore and coal, he said.

Li said China will now accept chilled beef exports from all licensed exporters.

“This, alongside continued cuts under ChAFTA to the tariffs Australian beef faces in China, will bring further significant benefits for regional Australia and employment in the red meat industry”.