Australia has rejected Beijingʼs offer to work together to counter US tariffs, saying the country will instead continue to diversify its trade and reduce its dependence on China.
This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, Reuters reports.
"We are not going to hold hands with China in any fight that happens in the world. We are not doing that. We are looking after Australiaʼs national interests and diversifying our trade around the world," he noted.
Marles added that Australia would strengthen its economic resilience by strengthening trade ties with the European Union, Indonesia, India, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
In a column in The Age newspaper, Chinaʼs ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian, called on Canberra to work with Beijing to protect the multilateral global trading system.
"Under the new circumstances, China is ready to join forces with Australia and the international community to jointly respond to changes in the world," Xiao said.
- Currently, US tariffs on China stand at 145%. These include a 20 percent tariff imposed in March for Beijing’s “failure to take adequate measures” to combat the flow of the drug fentanyl into the US, as well as tariffs imposed in April — which Trump increased to 125 percent on April 9.
- Regarding Australia, Trump imposed a unilateral 10 percent tariff on goods from that country, one of the lowest new tariffs on all imports to the United States.
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