Sign Beijing is warming to Australia

The commerce minister will quickly fly to China together with his sights set on lobbying Beijing to unwind sanctions on $20bn of Australian exports.

China’s Commerce Minister, Wang Wentao, prolonged an invite to Don Farrell throughout a digital assembly of the commerce ministers on Monday afternoon.

While the assembly didn’t lead to a breakthrough, Senator Farrell mentioned it marked “another important step in the stabilisation of Australia’s relations with China”.

“Minister Wang and I agreed to enhance dialogue at all levels, including between officials, as a pathway towards the timely and full resumption of trade,” Senator Farrell mentioned in a press release after the assembly.

The talks have been the primary between Australian and Chinese commerce ministers since 2019.

“I accepted an invitation from Minister Wang to travel to Beijing in the near future to continue our productive dialogue,” he added.

It would be the first journey to China by an Australian commerce minister since Simon Birmingham’s go to to Shanghai in 2019.

The federal authorities is hopeful the thawing of diplomatic relations may result in the unwinding of China’s sanctions on exports equivalent to beef, wine, lobster and barley.

“We want both sides to benefit from that trade,” Senator Farrell mentioned in his opening remarks.

“There are issues on which we disagree, but we should, where possible, address those issues through dialogue which I’m hopeful we can do today.”

But Mr Wang warned any disputes between Australia and China wouldn’t be resolved rapidly.

“China will not make a trade off on principled issues,” he instructed Senator Farrell.

Relations between Canberra and Beijing have been in a diplomatic deep freeze for the reason that then-Turnbull authorities blocked Huawei from its 5G rollout.

Since its election, the federal government has sought to restore relations with Australia’s prime buying and selling companion. It has since secured key conferences with high-level ministers, together with talks between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20.