Australia has been imposing hefty duties on Chinese steel, aluminium and chemicals for much of the past decade.

Angus Grigg

National affairs correspondent
May 12, 2020 – 6.06pm

For trade lawyers it was an epic dummy spit. In April 2014, China's Ministry of Commerce wrote to its counterparts in Australia saying it was a waste of time engaging with Canberra, as hefty import duties on products from the mainland would be imposed regardless.

Then came the warning.


China warned Australia about its trade posture in 2014. AP

It "reminded" Australia of its international obligations and said Canberra should take the "China-Australia bilateral economic relationship into consideration".

This indicates Canberra has been on notice for the last six years that Beijing was unhappy with its trade posture and may look to retaliate.

Australia ignored this unusually clear message from Beijing and continued to impose hefty duties on Chinese steel, aluminium and chemical imports, even as the Productivity Commission said there was "no convincing justifications for these measures".

More grating for the Chinese, perhaps, was that Australian Ministers continued to travel the world lecturing others on free trade, while quietly erecting sizeable tariff barriers at home.

For steel pipes imported from China those tariffs are currently as high as 144 per cent.

This contradiction at the heart of Australian industry policy was largely without consequences until November 2018 when Beijing launched its first ever anti-dumping action against Australia.

In proposing a tariff of 74 per cent on Australian barley, Beijing was essentially saying it too could play this game.

It signalled that the cost of draconian steel, aluminium and chemical duties would be to shut Australian barley growers out of the mainland market.

That's a trade war. And it has two sides, a fact the federal government has trouble acknowledging.

It has rightly said there is no justification for the charge that Australian farmers are dumping barley into the China market below cost.

Inconvenient truth
But at the same time Trade Minister Simon Birmingham has refused to accept that Australia's inglorious status as one of the world's largest users of anti-dumping measures at the World Trade Organisation might be partly responsible for this latest skirmish with Beijing.

He insisted on Tuesday the Australian Anti-Dumping Commission was "evidence based" and "transparent", which is not a view shared by all those on his side of politics.

One senior Coalition figure said free trade didn't have "many friends" within the government and that the Anti-Dumping Commission had become a vehicle for industry protection, rather than one for solving trade disputes.

More telling was a belief the Commission was making it very difficult for Australian free trade advocacy and that some form of retaliation was always inevitable.

This is a very different narrative to the one being spun by the government. It has continued to insist the fight over barley is retaliation for its banning of Huawei from the 5G rollout and Australia's advocacy for an independent inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These two factors would have surely entered Beijing's calculations, but it's hard to see how Australia's own trade policies would not have also been considered.

And it's not just China.

In the federal government's efforts to protect BlueScope and Liberty/OneSteel, which each enjoy monopolies in different industry areas, the Anti-Dumping Commission has imposed duties far and wide.

China's latest trade threat is hardly a surprise
While China's steel industry has been the main target of the Commission, steel products from South Korea, Vietnam, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Greece and Spain have also been hit with tariffs over the past three to four years.

It defies logic that all these countries would be dumping steel into Australia, which offers an alternative theory that local manufactures are not globally competitive and need protecting, especially when jobs in marginal South Australian seats are at stake.

Jasin wrote on May 14^th, 2020 at 10:09am:


exactly   thats why they will keep buying our beef.....it aint contaminated....and they know it..

.of course they are throwing their toys out of the pram  its what bullies do.....but we wont be bullied WILL WE?

John Smith wrote on May 14^th, 2020 at 11:51am:



well you can buy cheapo chinese Utes... see if I care...


I have always stood by aussie made.....as long as it doesnt let me down......but I get fed up with everything else having made in China on it...... there is no choice

then we find out certain foods that have grown or made in Italy or NZ on them     but originally come from China...

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

John Smith wrote on May 14^th, 2020 at 12:22pm:



what the hell are you taljking about i used to live down the road from Port Kembla hardly a person I knew didnt work there......when washing machines were made here I bought them ....you cant buy what isnt made here anymore......hasnt anyone told you that??...
are you driving the last Holden off the line????

I am not a builder or engineer  I didnt drive steel manufacturing off shore...

in fact I was horrified when it happened....living in a steel town  does that too you...


our high costs drove the business overseas.....blind freddy could see that...


now we are reaping what we wouldnt pay for...

yes that includes you the consumer.....we control it all.

lol,


cods think aussies will buy simpson washing machines for $1000 dollars when they can buy a Hisense for $300.

they get angry when milk goes up from $2 to $2.10

.

chinese pay equivalent of $9 for 2 litres of milk.
they are so grateful to the aussie farmer whilst cods and her cronies wont cough up the 10 cents.

"you reap what you sew"...you are familiar with this concept 

Jasin wrote on May 14^th, 2020 at 10:09am:


It's easy for people with tiny minds and big mouths to say that. Average OZ are all struggling for paying bills every month. Especially, high property price age. Any cheap goods will help a lots of OZ families.

aquascoot wrote on May 14^th, 2020 at 12:40pm:



what do you know what I buy......I have just told you I by aussie made when I can find it..

you rave on and on about something you have no idea about......tell me aqua what is manufactured in this country anymore thats made from steel?????.

do we make TV sets  or computers  not that i know of..

John Smith wrote on May 14^th, 2020 at 12:42pm:



Tell cods what Aussie brand she should buy