Melbourne, January 29 (BNA) The Australian Minister of Trade said today, Saturday, that Australia will seek to include it in the consultations on the trade dispute between the European Union and China launched by the European Union at the World Trade Organization.
Thursday’s European Union challenge accuses China of discriminatory trade practices against Lithuania, saying it threatens the integrity of the single market, according to Reuters.
“Australia has a significant interest in the issues raised in the dispute brought by the European Union against China … and will request to join these consultations,” Trade Minister Dan Tehan said in a statement.
China, which considers self-governing Taiwan its own territory, has cut ties with Lithuania and pushed companies to cut ties with the Baltic nation of 2.8 million people after it allowed Taiwan to open a de facto embassy in Vilnius. L8N2U71GE
Its restrictions include refusing to clear Lithuanian goods through Chinese customs, refusing import requests from Lithuania and pressing EU companies to remove Lithuanian content from supply chains when exporting to China.
Relations between Australia and China, its biggest trading partner, have soured after Canberra banned Huawei Technologies from its 5G broadband network in 2018, toughened laws against foreign political interference, and urged an independent investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
Beijing responded by freezing ministerial contacts and imposing tariffs on many Australian goods, such as coal, beef, barley and wine.
Australia has filed two complaints with the World Trade Organization in the past 18 months about duties imposed by China on imports of wine and bottled barley.
In a statement on Saturday, the Foreign Office said Australia “welcomes” France’s invitation to participate in the February meeting of Indo-Pacific foreign ministers.
“Australia highly values the cooperation with France and with Europe, including in the Indo-Pacific region,” she said in an emailed statement without saying if Secretary of State Marise Payne would attend.
Australia’s relations with France, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union Council, have also been strained after Canberra signed a security agreement last year with Britain and the United States, dubbed AUKUS, to scrap a multibillion-dollar submarine deal with France. .
The agreement, widely seen as an attempt to bolster regional military power in the face of a growing Chinese presence, angered Beijing, but it also caused anger in France.