Friday 29th of March 2024

losing trade as well...

sovereignty...sovereignty...

Singapore: Australian cattle farmers and abattoirs lost half a billion in exports to China in the last two years, cotton producers were down $870 million, copper exporters $1.5 billion.

But the Chinese importers did not miss those products. Australia’s great Indo-Pacific ally, the United States, was happy to make up for the shortfall.

The same happened with timber and coal. As Australia’s coal exports fell by $11 billion, the US added $1.8 billion to its usual load over the same period. Russia, Canada and Indonesia also sent more.

Markets are unsentimental; when there is a gap they fill them. The US and Australia have made much of their united front on China’s economic coercion, but the truth is American exporters have been eating Australia’s lunch.

The pain of some producers may be the price to pay for the AUKUS alliance, for Australia’s foreign policy sovereignty and for regional stability. But as we head into an election year it’s worthwhile being transparent about the costs of doing business.

“Decoupling in any overall sense has hardly begun,” said UTS researchers James Laurenceson and Thomas Pantle, who analysed the Chinese customs data for the Australia-China Relations Institute.

“The scope for costs to rise is ample.”

In the second half of next year, China will re-elect President Xi Jinping for a third term and Joe Biden will face the most significant test of his leadership since he took office - the US midterms. Before either takes place, Australia will head to the polls by May.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/australia-caught-in-an-election-trap-as-washington-and-beijing-do-business-20211130-p59dld.html

 

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inside our trousers...

 

The AUKUS pact has provoked strong criticism from former prime minister of Australia, Paul Keating who has cautioned that the arrangement could detract from Canberra’s "strategic autonomy", a concern the former premier shares with the federal opposition, the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

Kurt Campbell, a deputy assistant to US President Joe Biden and one of brains behind AUKUS, said on Wednesday that Canberra won’t lose its “sovereignty” under the tri-nation pact which seeks to provide the Royal Australia Navy with US or British technology to build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs).

 

“I fully understand how important sovereignty and independence is for Australia. So, I don’t want to leave any sense that somehow that would be lost,” said Campbell, often referred to as Biden’s ‘Asia Tsar’.

 

The remarks came during a virtual discussion organised by Sydney-based think-tank Lowy Institute, which is hosting the Indo-Pacific Operating System conference.

 

 

Read more:

 

https://sputniknews.com/20211201/melding-of-services-australia-wont-lose-sovereignty-under-aukus-says-bidens-asia-tsar-1091169180.html

 

 

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