MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia will search to be included in consultations over a commerce dispute between the European Union and China that the EU launched on the World Commerce Organisation, the Australian commerce minister mentioned on Saturday.
The EU launched a problem on the WTO on Thursday accusing China of discriminatory commerce practices towards Lithuania that it says threaten the integrity of the only market.
China has downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania and pressured multinationals to sever hyperlinks with the Baltic nation of two.8 million individuals after it allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in Vilnius.
China’s curbs embody a refusal to clear Lithuanian items by way of Chinese language customs, rejection of import purposes from Lithuania and strain on EU corporations to take away Lithuanian content material from provide chains when exporting to China.
China regards the self-governed island of Taiwan as its personal territory.
Relations between Australia and China, its high commerce accomplice, soured after Canberra banned Huawei Applied sciences from its 5G broadband community in 2018, toughened legal guidelines towards international political interference, and referred to as for an impartial investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
Beijing responded by freezing ministerial contacts and imposing tariffs on a number of Australian commodities together with coal, beef, barley and wine.
Australia has filed two complaints to the WTO prior to now 18 months over China’s duties on bottled wine imports and on barley imports.
In December, Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg mentioned Australia had been topic to “financial coercion” by China.
“Australia has a considerable curiosity within the points raised within the dispute introduced by the European Union towards China … and can request to hitch these consultations,” Commerce Minister Dan Tehan mentioned in an announcement.
“Australia opposes using financial coercion and discriminatory and restrictive commerce practices which undermine the rules-based worldwide buying and selling system and trigger financial hurt.”
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Modifying by Stephen Coates)
Supply: KFGO
