Political discord takes its toll: China-Australia trade growth slows

In 2018, the growth of Australia’s trade with China shrank by more than two-thirds. Analysts said on Sunday it remains to be seen how bilateral trade will perform in 2019.

On January 23, China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) released figures showing that Australia’s trade with China stood at 1 trillion yuan ($149.3 billion), up 8.9 percent year-on-year. That growth figure was nearly 30 percent in 2017. China’s exports to Australia grew 11.4 percent while imports were up 7.8 percent.

The growth rates were dismal compared with 2017, when a free trade agreement boosted bilateral trade and sent the figure up 29.1 percent to 923.41 billion yuan, GAC figures showed. China’s exports to Australia were up 13.9 percent and imports up 37.2 percent during that year, and China held about 30 percent of Australia’s export market.

Experts say the global economic outlook damaged by the China-US trade war was one reason for much slower trade growth between the two countries.

As described on hellenicshippingnews.com, relations between Australia and China have soured since the country accused China in late 2017 of meddling in domestic affairs. The country then in August blocked Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei Technologies Co from supplying 5G equipment.

Publication date : 1/29/2019

Source: www.freshplaza.com